The United States sanctions four Mexican companies linked to the proliferation of illicit drugs

USA sanctioned on Tuesday more than a dozen people and companies, four of them Mexican involved in the international proliferation of equipment used to manufacture illicit drugs that are often destined for the US market.

The Treasury Department said that in total 17 individuals and entities were sanctioned, the vast majority of them from China, with the support of the Mexican government. All are directly or indirectly related to the sale of pill presses, molds, and other equipment used to imprint counterfeit trademarks of legitimate pharmaceuticals onto pills that are manufactured illicitly, often laced with fentanyl.

With the sanctions, which will be applied by the Office for the Control of Assets Abroad (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, the US government seeks to demonstrate that it has strengthened its anti-drug policy by disrupting the fentanyl production and supply chains.

“Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl are a leading cause of these deaths and devastate thousands of American families each year”

— Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in the United States

Sanctions include Mexpacking Solutions (Mexpacking), a business based in Chihuahua, Méxicowhich sells pill presses and other equipment and is controlled by a pill press supplier to the Cartel de Sinaloa the Treasury Department said in a press release. The company has been used to cover up a person involved in the manufacture of fentanyl pills and to help cartel members in their operations.

OFAC also sanctioned three people from México: Mario Ernesto Martínez Trevizo, Cinthia Adriana Rodríguez Almeida and Ernesto Alonso Macías Trevizo.

Martínez Trevizo, a Mexpacking sales representative, was responsible for managing the activities of a pill press supply network in México. The head of that network supplied equipment used by the Cartel of Sinaloa. The man communicated with the Chinese company Yason Electronics, which supplied him with equipment.

Rodríguez Almeida, for his part, had a senior role in the pill equipment supply chain which needed coordination with Yason Electronics. In addition, the Treasury Department said, it assisted with the production of illicit drugs.

Macías Trevizo, meanwhile, works in sales at Mexpacking.

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