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U.S. Treasury sanctions alleged money laundering networks for Sinaloa cartel

U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C.
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U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Treasury Department is putting new sanctions on more than a dozen people accused of laundering money for the Sinaloa cartel.

Those sanctioned by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control include alleged members of two separate money laundering and drug trafficking networks.

One, Armando de Jesús Ojeda, is accused of converting cash from drug sales in the United States into cryptocurrency. The Treasury Department says he is the primary money launderer for the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa cartel.

The move also sanctions another alleged Sinaloa cartel higher-up, Jesús González Peñuelas, who was indicted by a U.S. court in 2017 and remains at large. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

The Trump administration designated the Sinaloa cartel, and several other Mexico-based drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations last year.

More news from KJZZ's Hermosillo Bureau

Nina Kravinsky is a senior field correspondent covering stories about Sonora and the border from the Hermosillo, Mexico, bureau of KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk.