The Department of Justice has announced charges against 28 Mexican drug cartel members Friday. These are targeting the infamous Sinaloa cartel and the children of the imprisoned drug lord “El Chapo” himself. Defendants include four of his sons; they are accused of fentanyl trafficking and money laundering, among other charges.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges filed in three locations: the Southern District of New York, the Northern District of Illinois and Washington DC.
“The United States government is using every tool at its disposal to combat the fentanyl epidemic,” Garland said.
Garland also said that between 2019 to 2021, fatal overdoses in the country increased by over 94%. An estimated 196 Americans are dying every day from them.
“Families and communities across our country are being devastated by the fentanyl epidemic,” he added.
Garland outlined how the cartel “operates without respect for human rights, for human life or for rule of law,” describing incidents where defendants fed victims, dead and alive, to tigers. The cartel also allegedly used human test subjects in fatal fentanyl experiments.
“In another instance, those defendants experimented on a woman they had been ordered to shoot. Instead they injected her repeatedly with fentanyl until she overdosed and died,” Garland said.
Although Friday’s charges concerned the Sinaloa Cartel, there is a larger initiative from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s that is pushing to target drug trafficking organizations as a whole.
Prosecutors also charged four owners of Chinese companies that allegedly provided chemicals to the cartel. The Treasury Department hit China-based chemical companies Wuhan Shuokang Biological Technology Co Ltd and Suzhou Xiaoli Pharmatech Co Ltd with sanctions.
