The Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned a money-laundering and cash-smuggling network tied to the Mexican Cartel del Noreste, hours after U.S. Southern Command said it carried out another strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific.
Announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the sanctions target six people and entities that Treasury said were involved in a cartel-run scheme centered on Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, across from Laredo, Texas.
The Treasury said the network helps Cartel del Noreste sustain operations that include fentanyl trafficking, human smuggling, money laundering, and extortion. The action also impacted two cartel-linked casinos, including one that sits about two miles from the U.S. border.
Previously known as Los Zetas, the CDN exerts significant influence around the Laredo port of entry, which is one of the busiest land ports on the southern border.
Officials said the three individuals sanctioned Tuesday played key roles in maintaining the group’s control over the Nuevo Laredo plaza, while the casinos were allegedly used to wash illicit proceeds into the formal financial system.
The OFAC said one of the casinos, Casino Centenario, was used as a stash house for fentanyl pills and cocaine and as a site where cartel members intimidated or tortured perceived enemies.
The move came as U.S. Southern Command said Joint Task Force Southern Spear struck a vessel Monday night along what it called a known narcotics-trafficking route in the Southern Hemisphere.
Military officials said intelligence had confirmed the boat was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male suspected “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strike, making seven suspected drug traffickers who have been killed by U.S. military strikes in the last three days.
SOUTHCOM said it struck two vessels on April 11, killing five men and leaving one survivor, whom the command said it referred to the Coast Guard search-and-rescue system.
TWO KILLED IN LATEST US MILITARY STRIKE ON SUSPECTED DRUG-TRAFFICKING VESSEL
The U.S. military began implementing coordinated strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats coming from South America in September 2025.
Known as Operation Southern Spear, it is described as a proactive, preventive military campaign “to enhance security and stability across the Western Hemisphere by detecting, disrupting, and degrading transnational criminal and illicit maritime networks.”