A Mexican pharmacy “owned, controlled or directed” by members of the Sinaloa fentanyl trafficking cartel has been hit with sanctions by the US government, the US department of the treasury announced last week (September 24).

Its office of foreign assets control (OFAC) added retail pharmacy and supermarket “Farmacia y Mini Super Trinidad” to its list of “specially designated nationals” on the same day.

The US treasury said that the “ostensibly legitimate” business was established by members of the Sinaloa cartel using “the proceeds of international drug trafficking”.

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The retail pharmacy, based in Sonora, Mexico, is owned by cartel member Jose Arnoldo Morgan Huerta, according to OFAC.

OFAC “administers and enforces” sanctions, which can take “various forms”, including preventing people in the US from doing business with the pharmacy, according to its website.

The treasury’s statement said that the sanction serves to “counter the global threat posed by the trafficking of illicit drugs”, in particular to stem the flow of fentanyl into the US.

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“One of the most notorious and pervasive drug trafficking organisations in the world, the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for a significant portion of the illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States,” it added.

A Mexican “frozen dessert” chain was also targeted in the sanctions, according to the announcement last week.

El Mayo’s man

Morgan Huerta, also known as “Chachio”, is the brother of cartel “plaza boss” Juan Carlos Morgan Huerta, nicknamed “Cacayo”, OFAC said. 

Six members of the Morgan Huerta family were sanctioned by the US in November last year and the US brought drug trafficking charges against “Cacayo” in 2021, it added.

According to a treasury statement at the time, “Cacayo” runs the Sinaloa cartel’s Nogales operations and “oversees the trafficking of multi-ton quantities of drugs - to include cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and illicit fentanyl - from Mexico into the US”.

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Morgan Huerta-owned businesses that were hit with sanctions last year included a restaurant called Habanero’s and a mining company, it said.

According to an organisational chart released at the time, “Cacayo” reported to notorious Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who co-founded and led the drug trafficking organisation for “decades”.

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Mexican citizen “El Mayo”, who led the cartel alongside Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, was arrested in New Mexico and faces 17 charges “related to drug trafficking, firearms offences and money laundering”, a US department of justice statement published earlier this month said.

“El Mayo” was arrested in July this year by the US government, alongside “El Chapo’s” son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the Department of Homeland Security announced at the time.