On February 10, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Wilder Emilio Sanchez Farfan and Miguel Angel Valdez Ruiz pursuant to Executive Order 14059, for materially contributing to the international proliferation of illegal drugs or their means of production and, more specifically, the trafficking of cocaine into the United States.
OFAC reports that Sanchez Farfan, an Ecuadorian national, is a major supplier of cocaine to the Sinaloa Cartel and has worked with the Cartel de Jalico Nueva Generacion (CJNG) to import cocaine into Mexico from Ecuador. The Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG were both designated by OFAC pursuant to EO 14059 on December 15, 2021. According to OFAC, Valdez Ruiz, a Mexican national, also imports cocaine into Mexico from Ecuador and works directly with Sanchez Farfan to serve as an intermediary between Farfan and Ismael Zambada Garcia, a Sinaloa Cartel leader designated by OFAC pursuant to EO 14059 on December 15, 2021. In addition, both designees are fugitives from federal drug trafficking charges after being indicted in a Southern California court in 2019.
As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of today’s designees within the United States or within the possession or control of a US person are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving the designated persons. US persons may also face civil or criminal penalties for violating EO 14059.