OFAC Sanctions El 03 and 50+ CJNG Individuals/Entities — Largest Treasury Action Yet Against the Cartel

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned more than 50 individuals and entities linked to CJNG on July 23, 2026, in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described as the largest action ever targeting the cartel. The designation formally named Juan Carlos Valencia González ('El 03'/'El Pelón') as CJNG's confirmed leader — his U.S. federal drug-trafficking indictment in Washington D.C. remained active with the (then) $5 million State Department reward — alongside re-designations of Audias Flores Silva ('El Jardinero'), César Alejandro Villaseñor Olivares ('El Güero Conta'), Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán ('El Sapo,' formally identified as CJNG's plaza boss for Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco), and roughly 20 other named CJNG members and financial facilitators. The action froze U.S.-jurisdiction assets tied to more than a dozen companies, including Petrocoda, Stella Servicios Comerciales y Empresariales, and Tequilera El Origen del Tequila. Bessent: 'The measure of today affects the leadership, financiers and criminal networks of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, depriving it of resources used to traffic fentanyl, terrorize communities and threaten American lives.'