The U.S. Treasury Department has issued new sanctions against members and associates of the Cartel Del Noreste, a faction of Los Zetas, targeting a network of horse racing, construction and transportation businesses the agency says the cartel has used to launder money and fund political campaigns in Mexico.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control named four individuals connected to the cartel in the latest action, along with several companies tied to them. The sanctions bar U.S. citizens and businesses from doing business with anyone on the list, with violators subject to criminal penalties.
Los Zetas has a long record of extreme violence in Mexico, including mass killings of women and children. In 2014, Breitbart Texas reported that the group kidnapped, murdered and incinerated more than 300 victims from a single town in the border state of Coahuila; authorities have never determined the exact number of people killed. Treasury also linked the cartel to a 2011 attack in Monterrey, in which members locked down a casino and set it on fire, killing 52 people, most of them women, and injuring dozens more.
Horse Racing as a Laundering Vehicle
According to Treasury officials, Cartel Del Noreste has used American Quarter Horse races to launder money since 2008. In 2012, the U.S. government took action against a series of horse racing businesses in the United States tied to the scheme and seized roughly 500 horses.
The cartel has continued the operation. It currently runs a venture in Nuevo Laredo, its stronghold, under the name Club La Molienda — a racetrack, bar and restaurant that hosts races and serves as a marketplace for buying and selling high-end racehorses.
Businesses and Individuals Named
Treasury sanctioned Gamaliel Garza Garcia and his son, Gamaliel Garza Elias, who own a number of businesses in Nuevo Laredo and are described as horse enthusiasts and known cartel members. The two are accused of using their businesses to launder cartel money and of helping cartel-connected individuals secure government contracts in Mexico. Treasury describes Garza Elias as having delivered illicit funds to Mexican political candidates on the cartel’s behalf.
Also named was Pablo Cesar “El Takia” Guajardo Alvarez, identified as the cartel’s current plaza boss in Nuevo Laredo. Treasury describes him as a highly violent figure who was arrested in Mexico in 2020 in connection with multiple murders but has since been released.
The sanctions additionally target a transportation company, Tamex Leasing, also known as Tamex Logistics, which has been linked to seized drug shipments, along with one of its employees, Francisco Javier Inzunza Partida, for an alleged role in coordinating those shipments.
