On November 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office for Foreign Assets Control designated five Mexican individuals who are members or associates of the Gulf Cartel, a long-standing drug trafficking organization in Mexico that also moves arms, drugs, and migrants into the United States, according to OFAC. OFAC reported that the group was also responsible for the kidnapping and murder of American citizens in March 2023. The Gulf Cartel was sanctioned as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act in 2007 and then again in 2021 under Executive Order 14059, which targets persons involved in the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.
According to OFAC, the five newly-designated individuals were sanctioned for their involvement in human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and unregulated (“IUU”) fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. IUU fishing usually involves forced labor, human rights abuse, and the use of lanchas – light, fast-moving boats between 20 and 30 feet long – that are often used to move illicit drugs and migrants into the United States. OFAC reports that the Gulf Cartel earns millions a dollars a year from IUU fishing, usually in U.S. waters, where red snapper and shark are plentiful due to U.S. restrictions on these species. The cartel reportedly earns revenues from the illegal trade of red snapper and shark that are processed in lancha camps in Mexico and often sold and exported into the United States.
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.