The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion on Thurs­day im­posed eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on three Mex­i­can na­tion­als and two Mex­i­co-based en­ti­ties in­volved in a drug traf­fick­ing and fu­el theft net­work linked to Mex­i­co’s Jalis­co New Gen­er­a­tion Car­tel.

It is one of Mex­i­co’s most pow­er­ful car­tels and the U.S. Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion says it has some 19,000 mem­bers in its ranks. The car­tel de­vel­oped rapid­ly in­to an ex­treme­ly vi­o­lent force af­ter it split from the Sinaloa car­tel af­ter the 2010 killing of Sinaloa car­tel capo Igna­cio “Na­cho” Coro­nel Vil­lar­real by the mil­i­tary.

The new sanc­tions against Jalis­co New Gen­er­a­tion, in­clud­ing top mem­bers Ce­sar Morfin Morfin and his broth­ers Al­varo Noe Morfin Morfin and Remi­gio Morfin Morfin, tar­get the group’s fu­el theft net­work. The Trea­sury De­part­ment says that net­work has re­sult­ed in tens of mil­lions of dol­lars in lost rev­enue to the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment and al­so funds the flow of il­lic­it fen­tanyl in­to the Unit­ed States.

The sanc­tions freeze any as­sets the in­di­vid­u­als or com­pa­nies have in the U.S. and pro­hib­it U.S. cit­i­zens from do­ing busi­ness with them.

The U.S. ad­min­is­tra­tion has made it a pri­or­i­ty to com­bat that flow, which has been blamed for tens of thou­sands of over­dose deaths every year.

Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Scott Bessent said in a state­ment that his de­part­ment “will con­tin­ue to use all avail­able tools to re­lent­less­ly tar­get drug car­tels and for­eign ter­ror­ist or­ga­ni­za­tions to Make Amer­i­ca Safe Again.”

Paul An­tho­ny Perez, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Bor­der Pa­trol Coun­cil, said the sanc­tions ac­tions “will en­sure that the car­tels no longer have the abil­i­ty to pro­vide un­lim­it­ed funds to fur­ther their crim­i­nal en­ter­pris­es and al­low the U.S. gov­ern­ment “to dis­rupt their dai­ly ac­tiv­i­ties on both sides of the bor­der.”

In Feb­ru­ary, the ad­min­is­tra­tion des­ig­nat­ed Jalis­co New Gen­er­a­tion as a For­eign Ter­ror­ist Or­ga­ni­za­tion and Spe­cial­ly Des­ig­nat­ed Glob­al Ter­ror­ist. Thurs­day’s ac­tion is the eight that the Trump Trea­sury De­part­ment has tak­en against car­tels. The Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion al­so im­posed sanc­tions on the Jalis­co New Gen­er­a­tion group.

The car­tel is led by Neme­sio Rubén “el Men­cho” Os­eguera Cer­vantes. Wash­ing­ton has of­fered a $15 mil­lion re­ward for in­for­ma­tion lead­ing to his cap­ture.

Mex­i­can Pres­i­dent Clau­dia Shein­baum, when asked Tues­day about the fight against fu­el theft and smug­gling, said her par­ty in Con­gress was work­ing to strength­en the gov­ern­ment’s tools so there will be “trace­abil­i­ty” when it comes to fu­el ship­ments.

“So that any tanker truck car­ry­ing fu­el, whichev­er kind, we know: where it came from; where it’s go­ing; if it’s im­port­ed, with what im­port per­mit did it en­ter, where was it stored, and from there to which ser­vice sta­tion is it go­ing to be tak­en,” Shein­baum said. “If a tanker has stolen fu­el from a pipeline and is stopped on the high­way, it has to show where that fu­el came from; if it doesn’t, there’s some­thing il­le­gal.”

The White House has linked fen­tanyl to Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s tar­iff plan, say­ing he wants “to hold Mex­i­co, Cana­da, and Chi­na ac­count­able to their promis­es of halt­ing il­le­gal im­mi­gra­tion and stop­ping poi­so­nous fen­tanyl and oth­er drugs from flow­ing in­to our coun­try.” —WASH­ING­TON (AP)

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Sto­ry by FA­TI­MA HUS­SEIN and CHRISTO­PHER SHER­MAN | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

Christo­pher Sher­man re­port­ed from Mex­i­co City.