On September 18, 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department launched a sweeping campaign against the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa cartel, imposing sanctions on its leaders, financial operators, and a network of businesses accused of laundering millions in drug profits. This decisive move, announced as Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley visited Mexico, marks the latest escalation in Washington’s ongoing battle to choke off cartel finances and curb the deadly fentanyl crisis ravaging communities across North America.
The Los Mayos faction, loyal to former cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, has emerged as a dominant force within the Sinaloa cartel since the imprisonment of its co-founders, Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Their successors—Guzmán’s sons, known as Los Chapitos, and the Zambada loyalists—have plunged northwest Mexico into a bloody turf war that’s left entire towns deserted and highways littered with burned-out vehicles. According to Reuters and the Associated Press, homicides in Sinaloa surged to 883 in the first half of 2025 alone, compared to just 224 the year before. U.S. officials attribute more than a thousand deaths in the region to this ongoing cartel civil war.
The new sanctions, enforced by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), target five individuals and 15 companies linked to Los Mayos, freezing their assets, barring Americans from doing business with them, and warning foreign banks that they could face penalties for facilitating transactions. Among the most prominent targets is Juan José Ponce Félix, better known as “El Ruso,” the leader of Los Mayos’ armed wing in Baja California. According to the Treasury Department, Ponce commands a “fleet of soldiers” involved in kidnapping, torture, and murder in support of cartel operations. He is currently under indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, and a $5 million reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
The sanctions also extend to businesses accused of laundering cartel proceeds and bolstering Los Mayos’ influence over local governments. Many of these companies—including popular bars, restaurants, and resorts in Tijuana and the beach town of Rosarito, just south of San Diego—are alleged to serve as fronts for money laundering and extortion. OFAC highlighted the role of the Arzate brothers, Alfonso and René, and their financial lieutenant, Jesús González Lomelí, in operating these commercial fronts. The network, officials say, is deeply entwined with political and law enforcement figures in Baja California. Candelario Arcega Aguirre, a cartel operative with ties to Rosarito’s former mayor, allegedly leveraged these connections to place allies in key municipal security positions, ensuring protection for the Arzates’ criminal activities. The sanctions also named a transportation company, Transporte Urbano y Suburbano del V Municipio S.A. de C.V., as a laundering vehicle for cartel profits.
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a foreign terrorist organization that continues to traffic narcotics, launder its proceeds, and corrupt local officials,” Hurley stated, according to Border Report. “Today’s actions cut at the heart of the political and commercial infrastructure that Los Mayos relies upon to poison Americans with fentanyl and maintain control of territory in Baja California.” The Trump administration had previously designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group, and Thursday’s action fits into a broader strategy to attack cartel finances, having already sanctioned banks, suspected money-laundering enterprises, and other cartel factions.
Los Mayos’ reach extends far beyond Mexico’s northwest. Court filings in British Columbia, Canada, revealed that a fortified compound in Surrey, south of Vancouver, housed a trafficking syndicate directly linked to El Mayo’s network. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the property, seizing fentanyl pills, counterfeit Xanax, Ecstasy, encrypted phones, and sophisticated surveillance systems. The Canadian government formally listed the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist entity in February 2025, following the U.S. designation. The British Columbia case underscored the cartel’s global reach, with distribution and laundering nodes in more than 40 countries and thousands of operatives worldwide.
In addition to drug trafficking, Los Mayos has been involved in kidnapping, extortion, and migrant smuggling, especially in the Mexican states of Baja California, Sonora, and Zacatecas. The group controls key drug trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border and uses its commercial assets to launder millions in illicit proceeds. Treasury officials highlighted that targeting the financial backbone of the cartel is as crucial as stopping the drugs themselves. “Let’s make it much less profitable to be in this business and see if we can put them out of business entirely and protect our communities and communities around the world,” Hurley told Newsmax.
The impact of fentanyl, the cartel’s primary export, has been staggering. In recent years, fentanyl overdoses have claimed approximately 100,000 lives annually in the United States. Hurley emphasized the broader international stakes, noting, “Other countries are now just starting to understand that it’s affecting them as well. Hopefully, we can engage them in the effort with us.” The U.S. government’s approach is twofold: disrupt the flow of narcotics into American communities and dismantle the financial networks that enable the cartels to operate with impunity.
The sanctions announcement came during Hurley’s visit to Mexico, where he met with local authorities and business leaders to discuss strategies for combating drug trafficking, cartel operations, and illicit financing. The timing was deliberate, signaling Washington’s intent to pressure Mexico’s government to intensify its pursuit of cartel operatives and their financial enablers. The U.S. also coordinated with the State Department to offer rewards for information leading to the capture of key cartel figures.
Security experts say the breakdown of the Sinaloa cartel into rival factions has only intensified violence and instability along the border. The sons of El Chapo, operating as Los Chapitos, and Zambada’s loyalists, Los Mayos, are locked in a battle for control of a multibillion-dollar fentanyl empire. The human toll has been devastating: Reuters and the Associated Press report that more than 1,800 people have died and 800 are missing in the past year alone due to this conflict.
Thursday’s sanctions are part of an evolving toolkit designed to cut off the lifeblood of cartel operations. By targeting not just traffickers but also the businessmen, public officials, and commercial fronts that support them, U.S. authorities hope to disrupt the entrenched networks that have allowed the Sinaloa cartel to thrive for decades. The challenge is immense, as the cartel’s influence stretches across borders and into the heart of legitimate economies, but officials remain resolute. “It’s hitting them where it hurts the most,” said Newsmax correspondent Heather Myers, summarizing the Treasury’s view from the border.
As the U.S. government intensifies its crackdown on Los Mayos and other cartel factions, the hope is that these financial sanctions will weaken the cartel’s grip on drug trafficking, corruption, and violence—offering a glimmer of hope to communities on both sides of the border that have borne the brunt of this ongoing war.