An anti-drug agent is investigating the scene of an armed attack in Michoacán on June 30. Juan José Estrada Serafín (Cuartoscuro)
The New Michoacan Family is the latest protagonist on the US Treasury Department’s so-called “blacklist”. According to a statement, the US authorities this Wednesday announced new financial sanctions against Franco Tabárez Martínez, who is believed to be a drug trafficker and works in the state of Guerrero on behalf of the criminal group. A week earlier, the White House unveiled another wave of penalties against Los Chapitos allies and accomplices, including an uncle and two cousins of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán’s sons, among others. It is a sustained attempt to attack the organized crime business empire and break through the drug supply chains of the Mexican cartels.
Tabárez Martínez was charged with drug trafficking by a Georgia court this month, although no further details were released after the court case was released. He is credited as a drug supplier to the Nueva Familia Michoacana, a successor organization to the cartel of the same name that had a predominant presence in the early years of the War on Drugs and is behind increasing shipments of “rainbow fentanyl.” According to US authorities, this presentation of the drug has attracted attention because of its pills and colorful shapes and because it is said to be designed to captivate children and teenagers. “He distributes cocaine, fentanyl and about a ton of methamphetamine every two months,” the US Embassy in Mexico said in a statement about Tabárez Martínez.
The operator of Nueva Familia Michoacana, 39, is also accused of controlling two drug labs in Mexico that produce crystal (methamphetamine) and smuggling powdered fentanyl out of China. Its trade routes extend across the southern United States and into some of the country’s largest metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and Houston. Tabárez Martínez has been incarcerated in the United States for a year for methamphetamine trafficking. Your inclusion on OFAC’s “Black List”. [Oficina de Control de Bienes Extranjeros] It has advocated involvement in criminal activities that “pose a significant material risk of contributing to the international circulation of illicit drugs or their means of production” and implied that their assets in the international banking system, as well as their businesses, are “frozen”.
A pint with the initials of La Nueva Familia Michoacana, in the municipality of Aguililla. Juan José Estrada Serafín (Cuartoscuro)
In November last year, OFAC blacklisted those believed to be the two leaders of the Nueva Familia Michoacana: Johnny and José Hurtado. Attempts by the United States to undermine the economic power of this organization, at least its “original” arm, date back to 2009. The US authorities assured that the group is present in 35 communities in southern Mexico, in the states of Michoacán, Guerrero, Morelos and the state of Mexico.
“The cartel is expanding into other regions of Mexico, generating profits from drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion,” the Treasury Department said. He also said he is behind marijuana and poppy plantations, as well as trafficking in other Central American-made narcotics, whose ultimate destination is the United States. “The Nueva Familia Michoacana has also demonstrated its intent to target government officials and offices in Mexico and to employ and train several assassins,” he said. Johnny and José Hurtado are “two of the most wanted criminals in Mexico,” and late last year the attorney general’s office was offering up to half a million pesos, about $30,000, for information leading to their arrest. Johnny Hurtado has been on the run from American justice for more than two decades.
The DEA has emphasized in recent months that the financial structures that support criminal organizations must be dismantled. “The Sinaloa cartel has never been this powerful, it’s never made more money,” Anne Milgram, director of the Anti-Drug Agency, said last May. “It costs the cartels 10 to 20 cents to make one of those fake pills in Mexico that sell for $5 to $30 in the United States,” he said of how fentanyl, which is easier and cheaper to make, has increased profit margins for drug trafficking groups.
Last week, sanctions targeted ten Los Chapitos supporters. The list was headed by Noel López, brother of Griselda López, El Chapo’s second wife. Also present were Ricardo and Saúl Páez López, cousins of the capo’s maternal sons. They have been criticized for negotiating the transfer of fentanyl from Asia and dealing with suppliers, and for using front companies to camouflage operations.
Less than two months ago, US authorities also targeted other allies of Los Chapitos’ global network. The Ministry of Finance has named 17 Chinese companies and individuals that have provided materials to make fentanyl doses, such as substances used to make opioids, imitation drugs and presses to make pills. Beijing urged Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on members of China’s pharmaceutical industry, which US authorities say is the epicenter of the global fentanyl supply chain. According to official figures, the overdose epidemic caused by this synthetic drug kills more than 70,000 people in the United States each year.
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