Police officers investigate the scene of the attempted assassination of Mexico City Police Chief Omar Garcia Harfuch, allegedly committed by the CJNG last June.LUIS CORTES / Reuters
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury has recognized this Tuesday the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) as the responsible party for two of the most violent episodes of the last year in Mexico.
The main suspicions of the Mexican authorities in the attempted murder of Omar García Harfuch, the capital's police chief, and the murder of former governor Aristóteles Sandoval already pointed to this group.
In a statement, the US has endorsed theories about the perpetrators of both crimes.
"This group is allegedly responsible for the assassination attempt, with high-powered weapons, of the Secretariat of Public Security of Mexico City in Mexico City on June 26, 2020," the document reports.
In turn, they are linked to the attack in a restaurant against Sandoval.
"The same group was also allegedly behind the assassination of the former governor of Jalisco in Puerto Vallarta on December 18, 2020," the report reads.
The OFAC government agency continues its fight to combat drug trafficking in the United States from the origin of the distribution routes.
The latest achievement has been to point out Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela, alias
La Firma,
and Francisco Javier Gudiño Haro, alias
La gallina,
both members of the CJNG, for “orchestrating assassinations using high-powered weapons” on behalf of the organization.
"They were appointed because they are foreign persons who materially assist or provide financial or technological support for, or provide goods or services in support of the CJNG," the agency said.
The same body has ruled on the matter of two of the most notorious assassination attacks in the last year in Mexico against public figures.
The first of them, against Harfuch, in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of the capital and in broad daylight, when some vehicles started a shootout lasting just over four minutes in which two of the bodyguards and a woman were killed. I was passing through the place.
The main target of the attack, the capital's police chief, was unharmed.
That same day, among the detainees, they identified José Armando Briseño, alias Vaca.
Federal authorities assured that the suspect is the head of the CJNG hitmen and one of the intellectual authors of the attack on García Harfuch.
In the same document, the assassination of former Jalisco Governor Aristóteles Sandoval in Puerto Vallarta last December is indicated as proof of the violent capacity of the cartel.
The 46-year-old politician from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who headed the Government of Jalisco from 2012 to 2018, was shot several times in the back in the bathroom of a restaurant while having dinner with friends.
That was the second attack in less than six months by organized crime against a high-profile figure in Mexican politics.
The agency has highlighted the violence with which this cartel acts.
In the case of Rivera and Gudiño, they have been identified for allegedly having materially assisted or provided financial or technological support to the cartel.
"They carry out violent attacks against rivals and government officials that ultimately benefit the territorial control and drug trafficking activities of the CJNG," OFAC has pointed out.
The CJGN is the most powerful cartel in the country.
Jalisco, the state that bears its name, lives under the incessant rain of murders, shootings and threats, the result of the organization's power and control struggles in the territory.
Its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes,
El Mencho
, has become one of the most wanted criminals by the DEA.
From Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, it has extended its tentacles to gain control of organized crime in Mexico and drug trafficking routes to the United States.
The special agent in charge of the DEA in Los Angeles, Bill Bodner, recalled that the organization has a significant presence behind the northern border of Mexico and holds them responsible for the distribution of most of the lethal drugs in the United States. taken exemplify our unwavering commitment to destroy criminal organizations that endanger public safety ”, he declared.
OFAC Director Andrea M. Gacki has pointed out that the cartel is one of the main contributors to illicit drugs, including fentanyl, whose use is spreading across the US “Today's action is a reminder that the Tesoro will continue to sanction those who provide support to the CJNG, whether that person is a violent actor or an accomplice businessman ”, he assured.
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