Washington.— The government of Donald Trump maintains active one of the most visible pressure strategies against organized crime: the payment of rewards for information that leads to the capture of priority targets.
The reward for 15 drug traffickers who, according to authorities, continue to operate in Mexico and have a direct impact on drug trafficking into U.S. territory, amounts to 94 million dollars.
It is the State Department, which publishes and updates these wanted posters as part of its security policy and international cooperation.
The list is headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, ‘El Mencho’, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), for whom the highest individual reward is offered.
They are followed by Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, sons of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, as well as Juan José Farías Álvarez, ‘El Abuelo’, identified as the leader of Carteles Unidos in Michoacán. These rewards are not only aimed at the capture of specific individuals; they also seek to weaken drug-trafficking networks, transport routes and financial structures that, according to Washington, continue to feed the flow of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl into the United States.
The State Department offers 15 million dollars for information that leads to the capture of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, ‘El Mencho’, considered the principal leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
According to authorities, the CJNG was formed in 2009 and today is seen as one of the groups with the greatest capacity to traffic cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in Mexico. In recent years, it has also been attributed a significant role in fentanyl trafficking toward the United States.
«Under the leadership of (Nemesio) Oseguera Cervantes, the CJNG has been responsible for numerous homicides against rival drug-trafficking groups and Mexican law enforcement officers,» says the State Department profile.
It also details that since 2017 Oseguera Cervantes has been charged on several occasions in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The most recent formal indictment, filed on April 5, 2022, charges him with: “Conspiracy and distribution of a controlled substance (methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl) with intent to illegally import into the United States, as well as the use of firearms during and in relation to drug-trafficking offenses.”
After ‘El Mencho’, the highest rewards, of up to 10 million dollars each, are directed at: Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar ‘El Chapito’ and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar ‘Alfredito’, sons of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, who are identified as leaders of a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. authorities place them among the principal people responsible for fentanyl trafficking.
The Treasury Department has sanctioned this faction, known as Los Chapitos, as well as business networks in Sinaloa, which it accuses of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and money laundering.
