On October 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated five individuals and two entities linked to La Linea, a violent drug trafficking organization (“DTO”) based in Mexico that is responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the United States. According to OFAC, the group that began as the armed wing of the U.S.-designated Juarez Cartel currently enables other Mexico-based DTOs, including the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (“CJNG”), to access drug trafficking and human smuggling routes across the U.S.-Mexico border. La Linea allegedly taxes these DTOs for transporting merchandise through the Juarez Valley and also generates revenue by trafficking synthetic drugs and engaging in illegal logging and car theft operations in Chihuahua, Mexico. The Juarez Cartel has been designated since 2004 when it was sanctioned under the Kingpin Act and designated again in 2021 under Executive Order 14059 for engaging in the international proliferation of illegal drugs. The CJNG was also designated under the Kingpin Act in 2015 and then again in 2021 under EO 14059.
All five of the newly-designated individuals are Mexico-based leaders or senior members of La Linea. The designees include Josefa Yadira Carrasco Leyva, a senior member involved in weapons smuggling and narcotics and human trafficking, and Herbert Nieto Fierro who serves as a drug trafficker and money launderer for the group. OFAC also designated two Mexico-based companies that are owned or controlled by Nieto Fierro. All of the new designations were imposed pursuant to EO 14059. As a result of the designations, all property and interests in property of the designated persons within the United States or within the possession or control of a U.S. person are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving a designated person. Entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.