Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – On Thursday, the United States sanctioned a network of Mexican companies linked to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) that commit scams and fraud in Puerto Vallarta.
In a statement, the Treasury Department stated that “in tourist areas such as Puerto Vallarta, the CJNG has engaged in fraudulent practices that often affect US citizens.”
The Treasury warned that with these scams they can steal “life savings” and that these frauds represent “an important source of income for cartel activities.”
The sanctioned companies are Fordtwoo Administrative Services, Badeva Integration, Providers Office, Promotora Vallarta One, and Recservi, all of them located in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.
They have also been designated by the US Treasury Title I Corporate, TS Business Corporate, and TS Business Corporate, based in Guadalajara.
“As the CJNG has consolidated territory over the past decade, it has added other crimes to its core drug trafficking activity,” OFAC Director Andrea M. Gacki warned in a statement.
“In tourist destinations like Puerto Vallarta, the CJNG has become heavily involved in timeshare fraud, which often targets US citizens. This crime, which can steal the life savings of victims, results in another important source of income for the cartel and strengthens their overall criminal enterprise,” Gacki added.
The Treasury did not specify how many Americans have been affected by this fraud, nor how much money they would have lost. It is also not specified if there are any related criminal charges or arrests.
The individuals sanctioned are CJNG hitmen Carlos Andrés Rivera, La Firma; Francisco Javier Gudino, La Gallina; and Julio César Montero, El Tarjetas for ordering assassinations of rivals, Treasury said.
“Puerto Vallarta is a strategic stronghold of the CJNG for drug trafficking and other illegal activities,” the US authorities indicated, which has its sights on the cartel’s activities in nightclubs, bars, and restaurants in Puerto Vallarta.
Washington blames the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel for the record number of deaths of Americans from overdoses of fentanyl, a synthetic drug manufactured by these cartels with precursors from China.
The Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, said Wednesday that the Mexican government is “helping” in the fight against fentanyl trafficking, but opined that it could “do much more.”
