US Treasury Department Bans were announced. against members on Tuesday The Gulf Drug Cartelwhich operates in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros in McAllen and Brownsville, Texas.
While commercial fishing and drug cartels may seem like an unlikely combination, it makes perfect sense for a criminal organization.
The department says the cartel uses fishing boats to facilitate drug and migrant smuggling. Along the way, boats catch tons of red snapper, a commercially valuable but vulnerable species. These boats often depart from Playa Bagdad, east of Matamoros on the Gulf Coast.
“The Gulf Cartel is engaged in the illegal trade of red snapper and shark species through ‘lancha’ operations out of Playa Baghdad,” the department said. “In addition to their use for IUU (illegal, unregulated or unreported) fishing in US waters, the launches are also used to transport illegal drugs and immigrants into the United States.”
To add insult to injury, these Mexican boats, often based out of Playa Bagdad, sell their catch in Mexican border towns, where they are sometimes shipped to Texas for resale in the U.S. market.
This happens when American fishermen have to respect strict seasonal limits or closures put in place to protect fish populations.
“Because fishing for red snapper and shark species is under strict limits in the United States, and therefore these species are abundant in US waters, Mexican fishermen enter US waters to fish through these launches. are,” the department said.
“They then bring their catch back to lancha camps in Mexico, where the product is ultimately sold and, often times, exported to the United States.” “This activity generates millions a year for the lancha camps. In addition, it causes the death of other marine species that are inadvertently caught” on the long lines of hooks used by boats.
US Treasury Department
The Treasury announced on Tuesday. Nominating five persons Associated with a cartel for illegal fishing — Ildelfonso Carrillo Sapien (aka “El Chivo”), Raul Decuir Garcia (aka “La Burra”), Ismael Guerra Salinas (aka “El Comandante”), Omar Guerra Salinas (aka ” Samorano”) ), and Francisco Javier Serra Angulo (aka “El Borrado”).
A history of illegal fishing
This is not the first time cartels have been involved in illegal fishing in Mexico. Experts say other drug cartels are involved in illegal gill net fishing for Totouba in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, which threatens the world’s most endangered porpoise. Wichita Marina.
Those named under Tuesday’s sanctions — which block any of their U.S. assets — include local owners of the Gulf Cartel in Playa Baghdad, as well as two owners of fishing camps there.
The problem of illegal fishing became so severe that in 2022, the U.S. government banned Mexican fishing vessels from entering U.S. ports in the Gulf of Mexico, arguing that the Mexican government was allowing its boats to enter U.S. waters. Adequate measures were not taken to prevent illegal fishing in the waters.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a report in 2022 that Mexican fishing boats in the Gulf would be “prohibited from entering U.S. ports, denied port access and services.” According to a NOAA bulletin dated September 10, 2024, those restrictions will remain in place. in place
Small Mexican boats often use prohibited long lines or nets to transport snapper in U.S. waters, which can harm other marine life such as sharks.
NOAA has said in a previous report that the U.S. Coast Guard has seized dozens of Mexican boats in the Gulf, including multiple contraband vessels since 2014.
It noted that the United States imported about five tons of fresh and frozen snapper from Mexico in 2018, raising concerns that “those imports may include fish illegally harvested in U.S. waters.”
The US has recently targeted cartels
In recent months, the US Treasury has imposed sanctions on cartels for a variety of reasons — from drug trafficking to fuel theft to time-sharing schemes.
In October, the US Approved senior members The armed wing of a Mexican drug cartel that operates in and around the border areas of Chihuahua, Mexico. The cartel has also been linked to the 2019 attack. Nine Americans were killed. In Mexico
In September, the US approved a The man known as “Tank”. who allegedly leads the fuel theft arm of Mexico’s hyperviolent Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
In July, the United States imposed sanctions on a group of Mexican accountants and firms that allegedly Timeshare fraud Run by the Jalisco Cartel in a multi-million dollar scheme targeting Americans.
A month earlier, U.S. officials announced economic sanctions against eight targets linked to the Mexican drug cartel, La Nueva Familia Michocana, accused of fentanyl trafficking and human trafficking. Among the leaders targeted was an alleged assassin, Uriel Tabriz Martinez. According to the Treasury Department, he is known as “El Medico” (“The Doctor”) for the violent and surgical procedures he performs. Tortures and kills those who cross the high-ranking members of the cartel.