Two leaders of the La Nueva Familia Michoacana drug cartel who were indicted in 2017 for conspiring to import and distribute heroin in the U.S. face financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury, as the fugitives are believed to be living in Mexico, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ said in a press release Thursday that 59-year-old Rodolfo Maldonado-Bustos, also known as Don Jose, and 51-year-old Euclides Camacho-Goicochea, also known as El Quilles, were both charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, and conspiracy to import heroin into the U.S., back in 2017.
Camacho-Goicochea was also charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
The indictments were returned by a grand jury in 2017, though it was not until recently that they were unsealed.
On Thursday, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced financial sanctions against Camacho-Goicochea and Maldonado-Bustos.
"These actions demonstrate that in addition to holding cartel leaders accountable for their crimes, we are working together with our partners at the Treasury Department to hit the cartels’ criminal operations where it hurts the most – their profits," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "We will continue to mobilize a whole-of-government effort to disrupt the cartels profiting from the drug trafficking and human smuggling that devastate communities and endanger our national security."
The indictments allege that in September 2016, DEA and IRS agents began investigating Mexico-based La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel members who were allegedly importing heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the U.S., in places like the Northern District of Georgia.
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The investigation led to identifying Maldonado-Bustos as a "high-level cartel member" who was allegedly involved in coordinating the manufacturing of copious quantities of heroin in Mexico.
"The investigation revealed that Maldonado-Bustos allegedly directed the harvesting of gum from opium fields, procured chemicals to process the gum into heroin, and supplied Camacho-Goicochea and other conspirators in Mexico with the heroin to import into cities in the United States, including Atlanta, and Houston," the DOJ alleged. "The investigation further revealed that Camacho-Goicochea allegedly coordinated the collection and return of drug proceeds from the United States back to Mexico."
Agents confiscated over $580,000 in drug proceeds from vehicles and homes in the Atlanta area in early 2017, which the DOJ claims were destined for the cartel.
"Denying drug cartels, the profits earned from distributing poison in our communities is an essential tool in DEA’s efforts to combat these drug cartels," Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Murphy of the Drug Enforcement Administration Atlanta Field Division said. "DEA Atlanta will continue to attack the La Nueva Familia cartel on all fronts by arresting its members, as well as seizing their drugs and assets."
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Fox News on Thursday her agency levied sanctions on eight individuals who are part of one of the most vicious Mexican drug cartels responsible for trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.
"We intend, through these actions, to try to cut them off, to make their business very difficult or impossible by cutting them off from the U.S. financial system and the dollar," she said. "We took the sanctions jointly with the drug enforcement agency and U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta."
