Washington has stepped up its crackdown on the Cartel del Noreste, a group the U.S. has described as an heir to the former Zetas and accused of trafficking weapons, drugs and people. The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued sanctions against three individuals and two casinos, tying the designations to alleged support for the cartel and to what the Treasury described as the group’s criminal operations, including extortion.
Among the casino designations was Casino Centenario, a gambling venue in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, where the Treasury said the casino functions as a drug storage hub and as a mechanism for laundering money through gambling activities. The Treasury also sanctioned Diamante Casino, headquartered in Tampico, Tamaulipas, and described it as operating an online betting site.
The Treasury’s list also included individuals described by U.S. authorities as key enablers. It sanctioned Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez as a “gatekeeper” of the cartel’s human smuggling routes into Texas, and it sanctioned attorney Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez for alleged illicit support.
The Treasury’s announcement included Jesús Reymundo Ramos, who the department identified as a paid operative responsible for spreading cartel disinformation under the guise of human rights advocacy. A request for comment to Ramos did not receive an immediate response.
Ramos previously alleged in March 2023 that the Mexican army and government orchestrated accusations linking him to the cartel; he denied those accusations. The AP report said an independent investigation later confirmed that Ramos’s phone had been compromised by Pegasus spyware in 2020.
The Treasury also linked Penilla Rodríguez to support involving Los Zetas leader Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, known as Z-40, according to the AP report. Treviño Morales was extradited to the United States last year along with his brother and the organization’s ringleader, Omar Treviño Morales, and 27 others, the report said.
Separately, the AP report said two individuals and popular Mexican rapper Ricardo Hernández Medrano, known as El Makabelico or Comando Exclusivo, were sanctioned in August for alleged ties to the criminal organization.
The sanctions block assets the targeted people and businesses have in the United States and prohibit U.S. persons from doing business with them, according to the AP account of the Treasury action.