On August 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Carteles Unidos (aka United Cartels) and Los Viagras, two Mexican cartels that have allegedly been fighting for control of drug trafficking routes in Mexico. OFAC also designated seven individuals affiliated with these cartels, which includes the groups’ leaders and other senior members. OFAC reported that the cartels routinely engaged in the practice or extorting Mexican farmers, packers and others in the Michoacan’s lucrative agricultural sector, by demanding that they pay the cartels or risk significant destruction to their properties and even death. According to OFAC, the two cartels were previously designated by the U.S. Department of State in February 2025 as a Foreign Terrorist Organizations pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorists, pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. OFAC’s more recent action imposed additional sanctions on Carteles Unidos and Los Viagras under EO 14059, for engaging in or materially contributing to the international proliferation of illegal drugs or their means of production. All seven newly-designated individuals were either sanctioned pursuant to EO 14059 and the counterterrorism authority EO 13224, or solely under EO 14059.
As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated person 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.
According to OFAC, these designations were timed to coordinate with the unsealing of indictments for five of the newly-designated individuals by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia and the Eastern District of Tennessee. On the same day, the Department of State offered a reward totaling up to $26 million for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of these same five individuals.
U.S. Department of Treasury Press Release | DOJ Press Release | U.S. Department of State Press Release