2023-08-09 19:36:02
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The US Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned three Mexican citizens for their alleged involvement in the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
It is the second round of sanctions in two months against traffickers of the powerful synthetic opioid of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The three sanctioned men worked in the violent city of Tijuana, in northern Mexico. Among them is a man known as “El Changuito Antrax”, whose decades-long career includes escaping from prison.
The three men allegedly smuggled large amounts of fentanyl into the United States. The sanctions block any assets they have in that country and prohibit US citizens from doing business with them.
The Treasury Department said that two of the men, Alfonso Arzate García, and his brother, René Arzate García, served as “plaza bosses” for the Sinaloa Cartel in Tijuana. They are still fugitives.
The other man is Rafael Guadalupe Félix Núñez, better known as “El Changuito Ántrax.” He began his career as a hitman in the early 2000s and later joined a gang of hitmen, all of whom adopted the word “Anthrax” as their last name.
He was arrested in 2014 and escaped from prison in 2017.
In July, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 10 Mexicans, including the brother-in-law of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, for their alleged involvement in the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
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