The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the "Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima" (CSRL) after determining that the criminal organization was stealing fuel and crude oil from Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also targeted the organization's leader: Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz, known as "the sledgehammer."
He is already serving a 60-year sentence in Mexico, but U.S. officials accused him of being the mastermind of the theft ring even behind bars by "sending instructions and orders to his collaborators through his lawyers and family members."
The U.S. Treasury noted that fuel theft is now the second most profitable source of revenue for Mexican cartels behind drug trafficking. Stolen fuel is then sold in Mexico, the U.S. and Central America. It is usually smuggled disguised as "waste oil" to evade taxes and environmental scrutiny, CBS News reported.
The decision comes a day after the U.S. also targeted a Latin American criminal organization, this time by designating it as a terrorist organization. The cartel in question is Colombia's Clan del Golfo.
"Today, the Department of State designates Clan del Golfo as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)," said Secretary of State Rubio in a statement. The designation enables Washington to impose wide-ranging economic sanctions on the group and on individuals or entities that provide it with material support.
According to the State Department, the Clan del Golfo—also known as the Gaitanista Army of Colombia—is "a violent and powerful criminal organization with thousands of members." Rubio said its primary source of income is cocaine trafficking, which the group uses to fund violent activities, including attacks against public officials, law enforcement, military personnel and civilians in Colombia.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the group will also be added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's sanctions list, freezing any assets under U.S. jurisdiction and barring financial dealings.
"The United States will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation and stop the campaigns of violence and terror committed by international cartels and transnational criminal organizations," Rubio said, adding that Washington is committed to "denying funding and resources to these terrorists."
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