Recent US sanctions against an alleged Jalisco Cartel operator reveal that the powerful Mexican group is using Puerto Vallarta to launder drug proceeds through nightclubs, bars, and restaurants.
The US Department of the Treasury accused Sergio Armando Orozco Rodríguez, alias “Chocho”, of having links with senior members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) through an announcement on February 17. Treasury representatives claimed that Orozco Rodríguez has multiple businesses in Puerto Vallarta, where he allegedly launders money for the cartel and directs his extortion networks in the coastal destination.
Any new business in Puerto Vallarta had to obtain unofficial authorization from Orozco Rodríguez to open and also had to pay regular ‘fees’ to the CJNG, according to the Treasury Department.
“People like Sergio Armando Orozco Rodríguez help the CJNG infiltrate the Puerto Vallarta economy and intimidate legitimate businesses,” Undersecretary of the Treasury Brian E. Nelson said in the statement.
“The cartel uses this well-known tourist destination as a strategic stronghold not only for drug trafficking but also for money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, and murder,” he added.
Orozco Rodríguez is the fourth member of the CJNG in Puerto Vallarta to be blacklisted by the Treasury Department in recent years.
In April 2021, Treasury officials accused Francisco Javier Gudiño Haro and Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela of belonging to the group of hitmen from Puerto Vallarta that works for the CJNG. The Treasury Department said in its statement that the men “helped coordinate murders with high-caliber weapons on behalf of the CJNG,” referring to the high-profile murder of former Jalisco state governor Aristóteles Sandoval in December 2020 in Puerto Vallarta.
Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán, alias “El Sapo,” also received sanctions in 2019. Treasury officials described him as a high-ranking member of the CJNG, serving as the group’s head in Puerto Vallarta.
With each new blacklist, the importance of the fate of the beaches for CJNG operations is drawn more clearly, especially with regard to synthetic drug trafficking.
Unlike other major tourist destinations in the country, the CJNG seems to have control of Puerto Vallarta, the group’s stronghold in the state of Jalisco, from where its members obtain income from extortion, money laundering, and human trafficking.
The CJNG also plays a major role in smuggling the lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States. Puerto Vallarta is considered an essential node in that supply chain, as it receives shipments of chemical precursors and fentanyl analogs from China.
Trending news on PVDN
- Crime in Puerto Vallarta increases 52% compared to last year Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – Despite being considered one of the safest destinations in the country, Puerto Vallarta has seen a surge in crime in the first few months of this year.
- Protest in Puerto Vallarta block main highway and cause airport delays while tourists are forced to walk to airport Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – With protestors blocking Puerto Vallarta’s main road, tourists were forced to run down the streets with luggage trying to catch their departing flights.
- Puerto Vallarta News Brief for March 31, 2023 https://youtu.be/IYKRsZ5gVAo A man has been arrested in Puerto Vallarta after shooting a neighbor in the head on March 13. The two men started arguing in a store about a party that the gunman was hosting in the neighborhood. The gunman left the store and returned with a handgun and shot the victim. The gunman is…
- Condominium development in Puerto Vallarta is destabilizing the hydrological cycle Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – At a recent conference on “Risks in Water Management and its Influence on the Real Estate sector of the Interstate Metropolitan Area of Puerto Vallarta and Bahía de Banderas,” Dr. Bartolo Cruz Romero, a research professor at the Centro Universitario de la Costa of the University of Guadalajara, emphasized the importance…
- What is considered lower, middle, and upper class in Mexico? Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – The issue of what social class one belongs to in Mexico is often a matter of debate among those who discuss it, since there are no established parameters that define the social class in Mexico. Although the National Institute of Statistics and Geography ( INEGI) identified some socioeconomic characteristics of each…
