A father-son duo and other Sinaloa cartel leaders were charged on Tuesday with allegedly trafficking large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin into the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
According to federal prosecutors, Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, were responsible for one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks. According to the Department of Justice, the duo led the Beltran Leyva Organization, a powerful and violent faction of the Sinaloa cartel. Five additional leaders were charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The federal government accused the pair of trafficking tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the United States, and the Mexican government seized more than 1.65 tons of fentanyl from their holdings, the world’s largest fentanyl seizure.
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a complex, dangerous terrorist organization, and dismantling it requires a novel, powerful legal response,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a 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 largest cartels, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa.
On his first day back in the White House, Mr. Trump issued an executive order stating that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”
In the months since, the DOJ has charged several alleged cartel leaders, including two brothers accused of leading La Nueva Familia Michoacana. Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga are accused of conspiring to manufacture cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl, as well as import and distribute the drugs in the United States, authorities said at an April news conference in Atlanta.
Earlier this month, 16 people were arrested, and 3 million fentanyl-laced pills were seized in what federal prosecutors described as 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 restrict the flow of American-made firearms across the southern border.