The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) sanctioned targets linked to alleged money laundering and cash smuggling by the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), officials said.
The CDN is one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking organizations, the office said, and is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) that exerts significant influence along the U.S.- Mexico border near Laredo, Texas. The office said it targeted three high-ranking individuals within CDN, and two casinos.
“As President Trump has made clear, Treasury will use all tools to protect our nation from violent cartels looking to reign terror on innocent Americans,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. “Treasury will continue to target the diverse revenue streams that cartels rely on to sustain their operations, which include trafficking fentanyl and illegal aliens into the United States.”
Officials said the office’s actions are a culmination of a coordinated Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF)-led investigation involving the OFAC, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Laredo District Office and San Antonio Division Office.
OFAC placed sanctions on Casino Centenario, a Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas-based casino operated by Comercializadora y Arrendadora de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (CAMSA). Officials said the casino is used by CDN as a stash house for fentanyl pills and cocaine, as well as a place to launder money and integrate it into legitimate financial systems through the casino’s gaming operations. The backrooms of the casino are also allegedly used to torture enemies of the cartel.
The office also placed sanctions on Diamante Casino, located in Tampico, Tamaulipas, and its gambling website. Diamante CAMSA also operates Diamante Casino, which has a location in Tampico, Tamaulipas and a gambling website with the same name (diamantecasino.com.mx). Officials said the casino was being designated a foreign terrorist organization for being owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted on behalf of, CAMSA.
Three individuals – Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez (Islas), also known as “Crosty;” Juan Pablo Penilla Rodriguez (Penilla); and Jesus Reymundo Ramos Vazquez (Ramos), better known as Raymundo Ramos, were also identified as targets for sanctions. Islas is suspected of overseeing human smugglers and border crossings, as well as controlling Nuevo Laredo stash houses. Penilla is a defense attorney who allegedly provides illegal services to CDN members beyond the scope of a normal attorney-client relationship. And Ramos is allegedly a CDN associate that leads the CDN disinformation campaign against Mexican authorities while posing as a “human rights” activist.
The Treasury Department said as a result of OFAC’s actions, all “property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.”
The sanctions also prohibit Americans from engaging in certain transactions involving the targeted casinos and individuals.