The United States increased pressure on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) by imposing economic sanctions on Sergio Armando Orozco Rodríguez for “illicit activities” in Puerto Vallarta, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
Orozco, also known as “Chocho” and of Mexican nationality, “acts for or on behalf” of the CJNG “facilitating various illicit activities” in the city.
The CJNG traffics a significant amount of the fentanyl and other drugs that enter the United States and uses Puerto Vallarta “as a strategic bastion not only for drug trafficking but also for money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, and murder,” details Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson.
“Individuals like Sergio Armando Orozco Rodríguez help the CJNG to infiltrate the economy” of the city “and intimidate legitimate businesses,” he adds.
The United States assures that Orozco, with ties to nightclubs, bars, and restaurants in the city, “launders drug profits on behalf of the CJNG and has ties to some of its most important members,” in addition to facilitating extortion in the area.
Many of the new businesses in this well-known tourist destination must receive unofficial permission from Orozco to open and then are forced to pay him money, the Treasury Department denounces.
As a result of the sanction, OFAC blocked all his assets and interests in the United States and prohibits transactions made by Americans or within the United States destined for Orozco.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Mexican government participated in the investigation into Orozco.
