4 days Ago By United Press International
April 15 (UPI) -- The United States on Tuesday announced charges and sanctions against a Mexican criminal organization, as part of the Trump administration continued targeting of drug cartels as terrorist organizations. The punitive measures were applied to the La Nueva Familia Michoacana, one of eight Mexican drug cartels that the State Department designated as specially designated global terrorists on Feb. 20.
Based in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, LNFM is one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels and is involved not only in smuggling fentanyl into the United States but also cocaine and methamphetamine. The gang produces the deadly opioid synthetic in Mexico, but then sends it via buses into the United States. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, it is responsible for more than 36 metric tons of methamphetamine, 12 metric tons of heroin and 12 metric tons of cocaine annually making its way north across the shared U.
S.-Mexican border. Brothers Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, who was born in the early to mid 1970s, and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, 40, are accused of co-leading the LNFM and were indicted in September 2024, but the court documents were only recently unsealed, federal prosecutors said Tuesday, as they announced the pair have been charged with several drug-related conspiracy charges.
Both brothers are believed to be residing in Mexico. The Treasury also announced sanctions against the brothers on Tuesday and the State Department announced rewards of up to $3 million for information concerning Jose and $5 million for Johnny. Ubaldo Hurtado Olascoaga, 49, and Adita Hurtado Olascoaga, 49, two additional siblings of Johnny and Jose were also hit with sanctions Tuesday that likewise freeze all assets in their name and bar U.
S. persons from doing business with them. Treasury officials said Ubaldo is a senior leader in the gang involved in extortion and narcotics trafficking, and Adita has laundered drug proceeds for LNFM through used clothing stores.
"Today's indictments and OFAC sanctions against high-ranking LNFM cartel members sends a clear message: If you contribute to the death of Americans by peddling poison into our communities, we will work relentlessly to find you and bring you to justice," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement . The LNFM had been a target of sanctions and law enforcement actions under the previous Biden administration who had sanctioned Jose and Johnny in November 2022 and then eight other high-ranking gang members in June of 2024 when two other leaders were indicted. The Justice Department investigation into the gang goes back to 2021, with the Trump administration stating the case is part of its Operation Take Back America initiative, which the Justice Department launched in March to bring together the resources of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and the Project Safe Neighborhood Program to target those who enter the country undocumented and to crack down on drug cartels.
According to the Justice Department , more than 900 immigration related-charges have been filed in southwestern border districts in connection with Operation Take Back America..
