US sanctions 2 casinos and 3 persons over alleged links to Mexico’s Northeast Cartel

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued sanctions against three individuals and two casinos for their alleged links to Mexico’s Northeast Cartel, one of several criminal groups designated last year as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

Washington has intensified its crackdown on the Northeast Cartel — heir to the former Zetas — which has been accused of trafficking weapons, drugs and people, and is characterized by its violent practices and extortion. Its base is Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial port on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Among the entities sanctioned is Casino Centenario, a gambling venue in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, which the U.S. claims functions as a drug storage hub and a mechanism for laundering money through gambling activities.

The Treasury also sanctioned Diamante Casino, headquartered in the northern city of Tampico — also in Tamaulipas — which operates an online betting site.

Sanctions were also leveled against high-profile enablers, including Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez — the alleged “gatekeeper” of the cartel’s human smuggling routes into Texas — and attorney Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez, cited for providing illicit support.

Notably, the list includes activist Jesús Reymundo Ramos, whom the Treasury Department identified as a paid operative responsible for spreading cartel disinformation under the guise of human rights advocacy.

The U.S. sanctions block assets the targeted people have in the United States and prohibit people from doing business with them in the U.S.

Ramos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March 2023, Ramos alleged that the Mexican Army and government orchestrated accusations linking him to the Northeast Cartel, which he denied. An independent investigation later confirmed that his phone had been compromised by Pegasus spyware in 2020.

According to U.S. authorities, Penilla Rodríguez assisted one of the leaders of Los Zetas — Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, alias Z-40 — who was extradited to the U.S. last year along with his brother and the organization’s ringleader, Omar Treviño Morales, and 27 other people.

Two individuals and the popular Mexican rapper Ricardo Hernández Medrano — known as El Makabelico, or Comando Exclusivo — were sanctioned in August for alleged ties to the criminal organization.

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