Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a network of nine Mexican nationals involved in fentanyl, heroin, and other deadly drug trafficking and money laundering. Individuals designated in this network also engage in human smuggling in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities. Additionally, as members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), some of the individuals sanctioned today played a prominent role in the early stages of the U.S. opioid crisis, a leading factor driving the United States’ modern fentanyl crisis. CJNG is a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organization responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States.
“Today’s action underscores our commitment to target the networks of suppliers and facilitators that enable the illicit flow of deadly drugs into the United States, endangering the lives of our citizens,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith. “The United States, in close coordination with our Mexican government partners, will continue to leverage all available tools to disrupt these criminal schemes and safeguard our communities.”
Treasury plays a leading role in countering the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs as part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda, leveraging its expertise to fight illicit financing and financial crimes to disrupt the flows of money that criminal organizations rely on to operate. Over the past two years, Treasury has sanctioned more than 300 targets for involvement in drug trafficking activities at all stages of the supply chain, from major cartel leaders to under-the-radar labs, transportation networks, and chemical suppliers. Last year, Secretary Yellen launched the Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force, which brings together Treasury’s expertise and resources in fighting financial crime, led by the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) and IRS Criminal Investigation (CI). Secretary Yellen has also engaged with international partners to combat fentanyl trafficking, including during her travel to Mexico last year. In April, Secretary Yellen also announced the launch of an exchange with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to enhance cooperating in combatting money laundering associated with drug trafficking and other crime.
Today’s action is taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059, which targets persons involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade. Today’s action was coordinated closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado (USAO-CO), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California (USAO-SDCA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Government of Mexico, including La Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF), Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE U.S. OPIOID CRISIS
According to the final report of the congressionally established, bipartisan U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking published by the RAND Corporation in February 2022, the rise in illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioid misuse and related deaths has its origins in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin in 1995. Starting in the mid-1990s, OxyContin and other prescription opioids were falsely marketed as nonaddictive treatments for pain. As a result, prescription opioid dependence and addiction increased dramatically in the United States. This dependence created a market opportunity for traffickers and other criminals to exploit as people with substance-use disorders, unable to continue obtaining prescription drugs, often turned to heroin.
In particular, heroin traffickers, like the “Bonques Brothers” designated today, from Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico were among the first to successfully exploit the opioid-addicted market in the United States in the 1990s. Xalisco is a Mexican municipality near the Pacific Coast where poppies grow well.
In less than a decade, illegal U.S. drug markets that were once dominated by diverted prescription opioids and heroin became saturated with illegally manufactured synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. Synthetic opioids are cheaper and easier to produce than heroin and they do not require growing seasons, making them attractive alternatives to criminals who lace them into heroin and other illicit drugs or press them into often-deadly counterfeit pills. Today, Mexican cartels such as CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States. Mexican cartels manufacture fentanyl in clandestine laboratories with precursor chemicals sourced largely from the PRC.
BUSTING THE BONQUES BROTHERS
The “Bonques Brothers” are an influential group of heroin and cocaine trafficking associates from Xalisco, Nayarit, Mexico, led by Roberto Castellanos Meza (Castellanos Meza) (a.k.a. Beto Bonques) and composed of brothers Ivan Atzayacatl Castaneda Meza, Giovanni Castaneda Meza, and Juan Carlos Castaneda Meza. As members of CJNG, the “Bonques Brothers” are close associates of OFAC designees, Ruben Oseguera Cervantes (a.k.a. “El Mencho”) and Audias Flores Silva (a.k.a “El Jardinero”), CJNG leader and CJNG regional commander of Nayarit, respectively. The “Bonques Brothers” were among the prominent heroin trafficking families from Xalisco, Mexico that had made their way into California by the early 1990s and were, therefore, well-positioned to exploit a U.S. market expanded by prescription drugs.
Castellanos Meza owns opium fields in the mountains of Nayarit and produces heroin. As such, the “Bonques Brothers” have great influence over heroin trafficking in the Xalisco area and are the suppliers for the majority of Xalisco-based, heroin-trafficking families as well as many of the heroin distribution networks operating in cities throughout the United States.
In addition to heroin, the “Bonques Brothers” are involved in cocaine trafficking. Castellanos Meza has been involved in the brokering of cocaine sales and the transport of cocaine from Colombia via small airplanes and boats. On November 18, 2024, the USAO-SDCA unsealed an indictment charging Castellanos Meza with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
In November 2007, Ivan Atzayacatl Castaneda Meza and Juan Carlos Castaneda Meza were involved in an altercation with Mexican authorities who were responding to a tip regarding an alleged clandestine drug laboratory in Xalisco, Nayarit. The altercation escalated into a shooting standoff which resulted in Ivan Atzayacatl Castaneda Meza’s arrest, Juan Carlos Castaneda Meza’s hospitalization, and the seizure of heroin.
OFAC designated Roberto Castellanos Meza, Giovanni Castaneda Meza, Ivan Atzayacatl Castaneda Meza, and Juan Carlos Castaneda Meza pursuant to E.O. 14059 for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.
THWARTING FENTANYL FACILITATORS
Jose Adrian Castillo Lopez (Castillo Lopez) is among those supplied with heroin by Roberto Castellanos Meza. Based in Pantanal, Nayarit, Mexico, Castillo Lopez works on behalf of CJNG and is the current plaza boss for the Tepic, Xalisco, and Pantanal areas of Nayarit, Mexico. He is known to supply narcotics to drug trafficking networks operating in Colorado, Nevada, and California.
Working directly for Castillo Lopez, Luis Alonso Navarro Quezada (Navarro Quezada) is also based in Pantanal, Nayarit, Mexico, and is involved in fentanyl and other drug trafficking, money laundering, and human smuggling. He maintains drug distribution networks in Colorado, Nevada, and California. On November 15, 2023, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado returned an indictment against Navarro Quezada, charging him with 108 counts, including multiple charges related to the distribution of over 3,240 grams of fentanyl between April 3, 2023 and November 14, 2023. Navarro Quezada’s other charges included distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine as well as laundering proceeds derived from fentanyl and other drugs. According to the indictment, members involved in the conspiracy moved drug proceeds from Colorado to Navarro Quezada in Mexico via wire transfers, using different names and addresses to conceal their identities.
Navarro Quezada has also been involved in human smuggling in furtherance of his drug trafficking and money laundering activities. Specifically, Navarro Quezada is known to pay fees to human smugglers, colloquially referred to as “coyotes,” to illegally bring his trusted associates across the U.S. border. His associates then work for him as drug and/or money runners, picking up and delivering narcotics, including fentanyl, and drug proceeds at his direction to pay off the debt incurred for the smuggling fees fronted by Navarro Quezada.
Navarro Quezada’s wife, Erandiny Jazmin Arias Ponce (Arias Ponce), is one of Navarro Quezada’s conspirators who has assisted with the collection and transfer of drug profits.
Navarro Quezada receives fentanyl from a husband-and-wife duo based in Sinaloa, Mexico. Araceli Castillo Peinado (Castillo Peinado) and her husband, Jose Sinue Castro Alvarez (Castro Alvarez), transfer multi-kilogram quantities of drugs, including fentanyl, into the United States. They direct U.S.-based third parties to pick up large quantities of fentanyl pills at prearranged locations and deliver them to distribution networks such as the one operated by Navarro Quezada.
OFAC designated Castillo Lopez, Navarro Quezada, Arias Ponce, Castillo Peinado, and Castro Alvarez pursuant to E.O. 14059 for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.
PREVIOUS ACTIONS AGAINST CJNG
On April 8, 2015, OFAC sanctioned CJNG pursuant to the Kingpin Act for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. On December 15, 2021, OFAC also designated CJNG pursuant to E.O. 14059. In other actions, OFAC has sanctioned numerous CJNG-linked individuals and companies pursuant to both the Kingpin Act and E.O. 14059 that played critical roles in CJNG’s revenue-generating enterprises such as drug trafficking, money laundering, timeshare fraud, and fuel theft in an effort to curtail CJNG’s ability to traffic fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the United States.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. U.S. persons may face civil or criminal penalties for violations of E.O. 14059 and the Kingpin Act. Non-U.S. persons are also prohibited from causing or conspiring to cause U.S. persons to wittingly or unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions, as well as engaging in conduct that evades U.S. sanctions. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. sanctions, including the factors that OFAC generally considers when determining an appropriate response to an apparent violation.
Today’s action is part of a whole-of-government effort to counter the global threat posed by the trafficking of illicit drugs into the United States that is causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually, as well as countless more non-fatal overdoses. This action also complements a recent Financial Crimes Enforcement Network supplemental advisory to U.S. financial institutions on new trends, typologies, and red flag indicators associated with the illicit fentanyl supply chain and the illicit procurement of fentanyl precursor chemicals and manufacturing equipment by Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations. OFAC, in coordination with its U.S. government partners and foreign counterparts, and in support of President Biden’s Unity Agenda, will continue to hold accountable those individuals and businesses involved in the manufacturing and sale of illicit drugs.