OFAC acts against Mexican drug traffickers

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) has sanctioned eight Mexican individuals and eight Mexican companies under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (‘Kingpin Act’) (6 March). Those sanctioned were close to the leadership of Ruelas Torres DTO, which is known to manufacture and distribute heroin from Sinaloa in Mexico to the US.

OFAC identified Jose Luis Ruelas Torres and Ruelas Torres DTO as ‘significant foreign narcotics traffickers’ under the Kingpin Act in 2017. Jose Luis Ruelas Torres died in October 2017 while awaiting extradition to the US, but his son Joel Efren Ruelas Avila – who was also designated by OFAC in 2017 – continues to lead the organisation.

In August 2017, OFAC made the largest ever single Kingpin designation against a Mexican drug cartel, when 21 Mexican nationals and 42 entities were designated in connection with Raul Flores Hernandez and the Flores Drug Trafficking Organization.

US persons are prohibited from transacting or dealing with the individuals and companies designated in connection with Ruelas Torres DTO, and all their assets under US jurisdiction are frozen.

For more information on the OFAC designations see:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20180306.aspx