The Department of Justice announced this Friday charges in three federal districts against various alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartelamong them four sons of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, for trafficking fentanyl and other drugs.
In a statement, the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garlandstressed that the actions are aimed at “the largest and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world“, directed by the aforementioned cartel and “fed by Chinese pharmaceutical companies.
The charges in the southern federal districts of New York, Northern Illinois and the District of Columbia are against about thirty people, including four children of El Chapo. According to the statement, there seven defendants in custody, although it does not clarify what they are.
Message to the ‘Chapitos’
The actions of this Friday, according to the manager of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Anne Milgram, sends “a clear message to the ‘Chapitos’, the Sinaloa cartel and criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect the national security of the United States and Americans.”
The “Chapitos” are the four children of Joaquín Guzmán, former leader of that cartel: Iván Guzmán Salazar, 40; Alfredo Guzmán Salazar (37), Joaquín Guzmán López (36) and Ovidio Guzmán López, 33.
The Department of Justice notes that they allegedly used cargo planes, private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vesselscontainer ships, supply and fishing vessels, speedboats, buses and rail cars, among others, to transport their drugs and chemical precursors.
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The State Department, through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Iván, Alfredo, and Ovidio Guzmán, and up to $5 million for Joaquín.
The Sinaloa cartel, according to the US, is the “most powerful drug cartel in the world” and is largely responsible for the production and manufacture of fentanyl for distribution in the United States, where this drug, considered 50 times more powerful than heroin, is “the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 49.”