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 News from Around the Americas | December 2007 
U.S. Takes Steps Against Mexico Drug Cartel
 Caren Bohan - Reuters
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Washington - The United States, seeking to bolster its counternarcotics cooperation with Mexico, on Wednesday slapped financial sanctions on companies and people it said were involved in money laundering and other activities linked to a major Mexican drug cartel.
The Bush administration said it had targeted 23 people with alleged links to drug smuggling and 19 businesses accused of serving as "front companies" for the Sinaloa alliance of drug gangs that is considered Mexico's most powerful cartel.
The label blocks those individuals and firms from doing business with Americans and from using the U.S. financial system.
"With this designation, the United States is exposing and sanctioning a principal money laundering organization and attacking the financial underpinnings of the Sinaloa drug organization," the White House said in a statement.
During a visit to Mexico by President George W. Bush in March, the two countries launched the so-called "Merida Initiative" to discuss ways to crack down on narcotics trafficking.
Combating the drug trade has been a key priority of Mexican President Felipe Calderon amid a surge in murders related to the drug trade.
Calderon's year-long army crackdown on drug gangs along the border and throughout much of Mexico has disrupted smuggling routes and forced up the price of cocaine on U.S. streets, but drug-related killings have continued.
Turf wars between drug cartels smuggling South American cocaine and other illegal drugs have killed around 2,350 people in Mexico this year.
The Bush administration, hoping to halt the flow of narcotics across the border, has asked Congress for $500 million for counternarcotics efforts in Mexico.
That money would be the first installment of a total of $1.4 billion that Washington has pledged over three years toward a cooperative effort with Mexico to go after drug gangs.
Among those targeted by the sanctions was Blanca Margarita Cazares Salazar, whom the Bush administration accused of being a money launderer with a widespread network of activities.
Also known as Blanca Cazares Gastelum, she is the sister of alleged Mexican drug kingpin Victor Emilio Cazares Salazar, according to a statement from the U.S. Treasury.
"Blanca Cazares' money laundering organization operates throughout Mexico and in California, and is run by members of her immediate and extended family," the statement said.
(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) |
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