The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday it pressed international drug trafficking charges against 60 foreign nationals.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury (USDT) reported Wednesday they had placed sanctions against 15 individuals allegedly linked to the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), a “powerful drug trafficking organization” peddling in “the transportation and distribution of deadly drugs, including fentanyl, to the United States,” the USDT’s press release stated. The BLO “has been one of the largest suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. market for over two decades,” according to the USDT.
Sixty Foreign Nationals Charged with International Drug Traffickinghttps://t.co/is96oapAdJ pic.twitter.com/Huryo5CqY8
— Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) December 6, 2023
“Together with our partners — across the U.S. government and around the world — we will use every tool at our disposal and target every link in the supply chain to dismantle the organizations that flood our communities with deadly narcotics,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in the DOJ press release.
The 60 defendants were indicted in four different federal districts in the United States on charges of smuggling drugs like cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine into the country, the DOJ said.
One defendant, Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, was accused of allegedly coordinating “deliveries of multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and heroin into the United States and deliveries of millions of dollars of cash narcotics proceeds from customers in the United States for the BLO,” the DOJ press release said.
If found guilty, Gastelum Iribe could face up to life in prison, the press release stated.
The State Department said this move by the DOJ was made in coordination with the Mexican government as part of President Joe Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy.