The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday imposed sanctions on more than a dozen individuals and entities associated with the Sinaloa Cartel and its fentanyl distribution operations. The designations target two separate networks that the agency says play roles in laundering proceeds and moving illicit narcotics into the United States.
One network is led by Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, who OFAC says coordinates the collection of bulk cash from fentanyl and other drug sales within the United States. According to the Treasury, Ojeda Aviles arranges the conversion of these cash proceeds into cryptocurrency and transfers the digital funds to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. The Treasury also states that Ojeda Aviles assumed the role of primary launderer for the Los Chapitos faction following the murder of Mario Alberto Jimenez Castro, an individual previously designated by OFAC on September 26, 2023.
Working within that same laundering network, Jesus Alonso Aispuro Felix is described as the chief money broker who arranges bulk transfers of drug proceeds through digital currency addresses. Rodrigo Alarcon Palomares is identified as a facilitator for money pickups in the United States; a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado returned an indictment in April 2024 charging Alarcon Palomares with three counts related to laundering drug proceeds via cryptocurrency.
The Treasury's action also names Alfredo Orozco Romero as a security advisor to Ojeda Aviles who functions as a debt collector for amounts owed on cocaine shipments. OFAC notes that Orozco Romero controls a Mexican security company, Grupo Especial Mamba Negra, S. de R.L. De C.V., and indirectly controls a Mexican restaurant in Chihuahua, Gorditas Chiwas, through family members who act as apparent front persons.
The second network designated by OFAC is led by Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas, a fugitive who the Treasury says has overseen the production and distribution of methamphetamine and heroin into the United States since 2007, and who is also a significant distributor of cocaine and fentanyl. Gonzalez Penuelas was indicted in 2017 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and again in 2018 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on international narcotics trafficking charges. In January 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced a reward of $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
The Sinaloa Cartel is identified in the Treasury statement as a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Department of State designated the cartel under those authorities on February 20, 2025, and the Treasury's recent sanctions follow an investigation led by a Homeland Security Task Force with involvement from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent commented that the administration will not permit narco-terrorists to inundate borders with poisonous substances. As a result of OFAC's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. Those blocked assets must be reported to OFAC in accordance with the sanctions regime.
The designations name individuals who, according to the Treasury, move physical cash within the United States, convert proceeds into cryptocurrency for cross-border transfer, and provide security and collection services tied to narcotics shipments. The Treasury's move targets both the financial conduits used to move drug proceeds and the trafficking networks responsible for producing and distributing illicit substances into the United States.
Because the action freezes assets and restricts dealings with U.S. persons, it directly affects any U.S.-based financial exposure to the designated networks and underscores the government focus on both traditional cash-based laundering and emerging digital currency channels used to move illicit proceeds.