The US State Department announced on Friday a $10 million reward that will lead to the arrest and/or conviction of Guatemalan drug lord Eugenio Dario Molina-López.
Molina-López is accused of leading the drug trafficking organization Los Huistas and forging an alliance with two of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations to flood American streets with deadly drugs.
Along with the Molina-Lopez ransom, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control disclosed sanctions against Molina and the organization, cartel co-founder Alec Baldoremo Samayoa-Resinos, five other members of the cartel, and a coffee company owned by Molina-Lopez. .
US federal authorities claim that Los Huistas have been operating along the Guatemala-Mexico border since 2012.
The US State Department announced Friday a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Eugenio Dario Molina-López, leader of the Guatemalan drug cartel Los Huistas.
Los Huistas, a cartel from Guatemala, joined rival Mexican drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Guatemalan cartel Los Huistas has been operating since 2012, shipping cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from its base in the northern region of Huehuetenango to Mexico, from where the drug shipments are then transported across the southern US border and distributed to cities in the country.
The group is affiliated with rival Mexican organizations, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.
Cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are trafficked from the Los Huistas base in the northern Guatemalan region of Huehuetenango to Mexico, where the drug shipments are later transported across the southern border of the United States and distributed to the country’s cities.
“Criminal groups such as Los Huistas DTO (an organization involved in drug trafficking) contribute to instability in Guatemala and the region,” said Brian Nelson, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Counterterrorism and Financial Intelligence.
Molina-López is reportedly in charge of the day-to-day operations of Los Huistas and is involved in the trafficking of several tons of cocaine from South and Central America to Mexico.
Los Huistas co-founder Alec Baldoremo Samayoa-Resinos was sanctioned by the Treasury on Friday. He is accused of coordinating cocaine shipments from Huehuetenango to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
He was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on multiple drug dealing charges related to an operation run by the National Security Investigation Service.
“This reward offer is in addition to the Department of Justice’s indictment against Molina and other associates, and the Department of the Treasury’s actions taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to impose financial sanctions on Molina and other individuals and entities associated with Los Huistas. in accordance with Executive Order 14059,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price. “This is yet another example of the US government’s coordinated approach to combating transnational organized crime in Central America.”
Samayoa Resinos is accused of coordinating cocaine shipments from Huehuetenango to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
He also launders the cartel’s drug proceeds. In 2018, he was charged with drug trafficking by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as part of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Samayoa-Resinos is also on Guatemala’s most wanted list for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, murder and money laundering.
The cartel is said to control poppy fields located in the Guatemalan departments of Huehuetenango and San Marcos. It also imports precursor chemicals from China that are used to manufacture methamphetamine.
The organization has a centralized and hierarchical structure that is reportedly involved in money laundering.
According to the US Treasury Department, Werner Dario Molina-Montejo, son of Los Huistas cartel co-founder Eugenio Dario Molina-López, supports his father’s “business affairs”.
Freddy Arnoldo Salazar-Flores is a member of the Guatemalan Parliament accused of delivering and possessing cocaine for Los Huistas.
The Treasury Department sanctioned Axel Bladimir Montejo-Sans, Molina-Lopez’s son-in-law, and Freddy Arnoldo Salazar-Flores, Samayoa-Resinos’ son-in-law.
According to the government, Montejo-Sans is a high-ranking cartel leader and arranges drug shipments to the United States. In 2017, he was charged with drug trafficking by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California based on an investigation by HSI.
Salazar-Flores is identified as a member of the country’s parliament and is accused of delivering and storing cocaine for the cartel.
In 2016, he was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for drug trafficking stemming from a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
The Treasury Department said both individuals were sanctioned “for engaging in or attempting to engage in activities or transactions that materially facilitate or pose a significant risk of contributing materially to the international distribution of illicit drugs or their means of production.” .”
Axel Bladimir Montejo-Sans holds a senior position in Los Huistas, a cartel from Guatemala. In 2017, he was charged with drug trafficking by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California based on an investigation by HSI.
Molina-Lopez’s son Werner Dario Molina-Montejo and Ervin René Moreno-Lopez were also sanctioned.
As a member of the cartel, Molina-Montejo supports his father’s “business affairs”.
Moreno-Lopez is accused of providing accounting services to a company owned by Molina-Lopez.
Both men “were held accountable for acting or intending to act for and on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Los Huistas DTO,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Samayoa-Resinos’ son, Roger Antulio Samayoa-Montejo, is reported to be a cartel lieutenant and organizes its operations.
He was sanctioned “for acting or intending to act for and on behalf of Samayoa Recinos and Los Huistas DTO”.