On May 12, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act against a commander and his organization responsible for facilitating drug trafficking between Mexico and the U.S. OFAC also designated six other individuals and one entity as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Kingpin Act for their connections to the organization. Director of OFAC Andrea Gacki noted that the sanctioned organization “help[s] fuel our nation’s opioid epidemic” and that “Treasury and our U.S. government partners, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, will continue to use every available resource to dismantle these criminal networks.” As a result of the sanctions, all property belonging to the sanctioned persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. U.S. persons are also generally prohibited from engaging in any dealings involving the property of blocked or designated persons.

These sanctions against the drug trafficking cartel are the most recent efforts taken by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act (covered in InfoBytes, here and here).