A father-son duo and other Sinaloa cartel leaders were charged Tuesday with allegedly trafficking massive amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States, the Department of Justice said.
Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, ran one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks, federal prosecutors said in a news release. The Department of Justice said the duo were leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a powerful and violent faction of the Sinaloa cartel. Five other leaders were also charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The pair trafficked tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the U.S., the federal government alleged, and more than 1.65 tons of fentanyl was seized from their holdings by the Mexican government — the largest seizure of fentanyl in the world.
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a complex, dangerous terrorist organization and dismantling them demands a novel, powerful legal response,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement. “Their days of brutalizing the American people without consequence are over — we will seek life in prison for these terrorists.”
President Trump has designated eight Latin American drug trafficking organizations as terrorist organizations, including Mexico’s two main drug trafficking organizations: the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House saying that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”
In the months since, the Department of Justice has charged several alleged cartel leaders, including two brothers accused of being leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana. Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga are accused of participating in a conspiracy to manufacture cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl and importing and distributing the drugs in the U.S., authorities said during an April news conference in Atlanta.
Sixteen people were also arrested earlier this month and 3 million pills laced with fentanyl were seized in what federal prosecutors said was the “largest fentanyl bust in DEA history.”
Democrats also urged Trump administration officials to use the designation of Latin American cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations to take action to curtail the flow of American-made guns across the southern border.
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at [email protected]
contributed to this report.
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