The U.S. imposed sanctions Wednesday on more than a dozen people, a Mexican restaurant and a security firm linked to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel and its fentanyl trafficking activities, using the machinery of financial punishment to cut off targets from the U.S. banking system and block their U.S. assets.
Who Gets Hit First
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas, a fugitive known as Chuy Gonzalez, who is alleged to be involved in trafficking narcotics into the U.S. and laundering funds for the cartel. The State Department has been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest since 2024, a reminder that the state’s preferred answer to organized crime is a bounty, a blacklist and the long arm of its own enforcement apparatus.
Additionally, Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, who allegedly helps launder the proceeds of fentanyl and other drugs on behalf of the cartel, has also been hit with sanctions. A restaurant in Chihuahua, called Gorditas Chiwas, controlled by sanctioned businessman Alfredo Orozco Romero, was also hit with sanctions. The sanctions cut them off from the U.S. banking system, cut off their ability to work with Americans and block their U.S. assets. It was unclear how embedded the sanctioned individuals and firms are in the U.S. financial system.
What the State Calls Protection
Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement that Treasury “will continue to target terrorist cartels and their fentanyl trafficking networks to protect our communities and Keep America Safe.” That line lays out the official script: the state presents itself as guardian while extending its reach through sanctions, surveillance and financial exclusion.
Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. A tiny amount, 2 milligrams, ingested into the body can be fatal. Drug overdose deaths increased approximately 520% from 1999 to 2023, though deaths are beginning to decline, by nearly 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the latest CDC data. Those numbers sit behind the policy theater, where the people most affected by the crisis are far from the rooms where sanctions are drafted.
The Network Behind the Network
Mexico and China are the primary sources for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Nearly all the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl come from China, and the companies that make the precursors routinely use fake return addresses and mislabel the products to avoid being caught by law enforcement. The supply chain runs through layers of concealment, while enforcement agencies respond with more enforcement.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly offered to send the U.S. military after the cartels, and his administration designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group in 2025. The Government of Mexico’s financial intelligence unit worked with Treasury and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to identify targets for Wednesday’s sanctions. The result is a cross-border security partnership aimed at the cartel economy, with state institutions on both sides coordinating the pressure campaign.
The sanctions announced Wednesday show how power moves through banks, rewards, designations and military threats, while the people living with the fallout of fentanyl, trafficking and state crackdowns remain the ones absorbing the damage.