US offers $5 million rewards for ‘El Chapo’ sons, sanctions drug networks
Washington, Dec 15 (EFE).- The United States government imposed sanctions on Wednesday against international drug trafficking networks in Brazil, Mexico and China, and offered multimillion-dollar rewards for individuals, including the children of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
President Joe Biden also signed two executive orders declaring a national emergency to address the “worst drug epidemic in (US) history” and announcing the creation of the US Council on Transnational Organized Crime to combat transnational criminal organizations, the State Department said.
Among the individuals and entities sanctioned was Primeiro Comando Da Capital (First Capital Command), considered the most powerful organized crime group in Brazil, with its operations reaching the US, Europe, Asia and Africa from South America, the Treasury Department said.
It also included two Mexican drug trafficking splinter groups of the Beltrán Leyva Organization – Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos, which it said collaborates with the Mexican narcotics trafficking organization, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion to move drug shipments into the US.
Washington also designated Chinese citizen Chuen Fat Yip, who the Treasury Department said leads a network in China and Hong Kong dedicated to trafficking fentanyl, anabolic steroids and other synthetic drugs to the US.
“The U.S. Department of State is issuing a reward offer, under its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Chuen Fat Yip,” the Treasury Department added.
It also sanctioned Chinese entities Wuhan Yuancheng Gongchuang Technology,Shanghai Fast-Fine Chemicals, Huanhao Biotechnology and Hebei Atun Trading.
As a result of the designations, the assets that these entities may have under US jurisdiction are frozen and they are prohibited from making financial transactions with US citizens.
Simultaneously, the State Department announced rewards for various individuals, including up to $5 million dollars for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Mexicans Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, sons of “El Chapo.”
“All four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel and are each subject to a federal indictment for their involvement in the illicit drug trade,” the State Department said.
“El Chapo,” former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the US on Jan. 19, 2017 and sentenced to life in prison on July 17, 2019 in New York. He is currently serving his sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado. EFE
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