A report from the US Government’s Treasury Department revealed that the Sinaloa Cartel of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán Loera and his sons pays “taxes” to Guatemalans linked to the policy to store drugs in border areas with Mexico.
These details were revealed following a new sanction for drug trafficking by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of said department to the Guatemalan organization “los Pochos,” Washington reported.
According to the US, the mayor of Ayutla, San Marcos, Isel Aneli Súñiga, daughter of the previous leader of said structure, former mayor Erik Súñiga, who died in prison in 2020 in the US, is linked to “the Pochos”, for which she was sanctioned by OFAC along with her husband, Juan José Morales Cifuentes.
OFAC first sanctioned “los Pochos” in 2019 and the new actions of the Treasury Department reach three of its alleged members and four affiliated companies based in Guatemala.
The measure was taken “due to a change in leadership and the participation of its members in local Guatemalan politics,” it states.
“Los Pochos,” “relying on a network of corrupt officials, has continued to facilitate the flow of illicit drugs from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States,” says Brian E. Nelson, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, quoted in the note.
According to Washington, the organization supplies “tons of cocaine” to leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel who transport it to the United States.
“It depends on corrupt officials, including police and military, prosecutors and other Guatemalan authorities,” he adds.
After the death of Erik Súñiga “los Pochos remains active” under the orders of some of his relatives, reports the Treasury Department.
Washington sanctions three ringleaders: Juan José Morales Cifuentes, his wife Isel Aneli Súñiga Morfin and Érick Manuel Ochoa Villagrán.
“Mexican traffickers pay taxes to Morales Cifuentes to store their narcotics in the Guatemalan border cities of Tecún Umán and San Marcos,” Washington charges.
Morales Cifuentes was arrested in December 2023 and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
Isel Aneli Súñiga, daughter of the previous leader, is the current mayor of Ayutla and represented Guatemala in the Miss Universe pageant in 2017.
“OFAC has reason to believe that Suñiga Morfin owns businesses and bank accounts that he has used for illicit financial activities in support” of Los Pochos, the US government says.
For his part, Ochoa Villagrán, arrested in 2013 in Guatemala, accused of murder, is one of Morales Cifuentes’ lieutenants. He is also awaiting extradition to the United States.
Additionally, OFAC designated four companies that are owned or controlled by members of “the Pochos. They are Importadora Jireh, a car dealership, Construhogar, a hardware store, WIV Sociedad Anónima, an industrial parking lot, and Condado Real, a real estate company. All of them located in the capital of San Marcos.
As a result of the sanctions, all assets and interests in assets of those sanctioned that are in the United States or that are in the power or control of Americans are blocked.
#Sinaloa #cartel #pays #store #drugs #Guatemala
