US Treasury Designates Mexican Businesses and Individuals Linked to Sinaloa Cartel
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated nearly 50 targets, including 25 companies and 21 individuals, tied to the Sinaloa Cartel’s ‘La Mayiza’ faction and linked to ‘El Mayito flaco’, son of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada. The sanctions target seemingly everyday operations, including currency exchange houses, a hotel services firm, a bar, a restaurant, gas stations, security companies, and real estate businesses.
Among the designated entities detailed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are currency exchanges in Tijuana and Mexicali. Galerias Centro Cambiario, known as Magic Casa de Cambio in Tijuana, is linked to Ilia Elizabeth Felix Rivera. Another exchange, Mia Centro Cambiario in Mexicali, belongs to Jose Angel Rivera Zazueta, whom the Treasury signals for using it for money laundering for the Sinaloa Cartel.
The financial networks stretch well beyond currency exchange houses into retail fuel, hospitality, and daily commerce. OFAC linked four social reasons to gas stations and bars: Xolo Gas de Baja California and Grupo Gasolinero Nueva Esperanza, alongside The Woods Bar and Raes Restaurante. The fuel businesses are connected to Jeronimo Javier Vera Ayala and Pedro Ariel Mendivil Garcia, former director of Public Security in Mexicali. Meanwhile, the hospitality venues link to Luis Alfonso Torres Torres, brother of Carlos Torres Torres, former husband of Marina del Pilar Ávila, the governor in Baja California.
Ten of the 25 companies connect to Marco Antonio Moreno Gomez Santelices. The Department of the Treasury says that he and Carlos Villela Gomez Santelices, associates in Tijuana of a suspected money launderer of the Sinaloa Cartel, have a network of security, real estate, and entertainment companies that also launders money for the group.
Mechanisms of Illicit Finance and Corporate Fronts
According to OFAC, Felix uses Magic Casa de Cambio to work with complicit currency exchange businesses in Southern California. These entities gather large amounts of cash from drug trafficking in the United States, execute what the Treasury calls mirror transactions, and return the money to Mexico. The previous owner of Magic, Omar Guadalupe Ayon Diaz, former husband of Felix, was arrested for laundering more than 45 million dollars through exchange houses for the cartel.
The Treasury details alternative financial channels involving Jeronimo Vera, who launders money through businesses he shares with a partner. Luis Torres Torres was in charge of receiving bribes and laundering those funds with companies and political campaigns.
One notable vehicle cited in the financial schemes is Vida Orgánica Tijuana, a business where groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy, food supplements, desserts, snacks, as well as organic meats and seafood are sold. The business was registered in November 2020 by founding partners that included Marina del Pilar Ávila, Carlos Torres Torres, Luis Alfonso Torres Torres, Juan Manuel Lameiro Camacho, Luis Jaime Lameiro Camacho, María del Socorro Terrazas Ciapara, and Miriam Miranda Hernández.
Legal and Enforcement Consequences of OFAC Designations
The inclusion of an enterprise on the OFAC sanctions list triggers immediate asset freezes. Any property or interests in property belonging to the designated entities that are located within the United States, or that come into the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.
Furthermore, sanctions extend automatically to any entity owned 50 percent or more, directly or indirectly, by blocked individuals. U.S. persons and transactions occurring within or transacting through the United States are generally prohibited from engaging in commercial or financial interactions with the designated parties without an explicit license.
Violating these restrictive measures carries severe civil and criminal penalties. OFAC enforces civil penalties under strict liability standards, meaning financial or operational infractions are punishable regardless of whether the participating party acted with deliberate intent.
