The Kentucky Sentate gavel rests on the wooden sound block in the Kentucky Senate chambers before the first day of Concurrence began at the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. March 13, 2025.
San Diego, California – Five men have been charged with laundering money for the notorious Sinaloa Cartel in a pair of grand jury indictments unsealed Monday in San Diego federal court. The charges, originally returned in 2022, accuse the defendants of being involved in drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. All five men remain at large and are facing serious federal charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
As part of the sanctions imposed Monday, four of the defendants were also blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The sanctions are the result of their alleged roles in supporting the cartel’s vast drug trafficking network.
One of the men, Salvador Diaz Rodriguez, was described by OFAC as a Mexicali-based enforcer who collected “taxes” for a local criminal organization. Known for his violent methods, Diaz is reportedly notorious for killing those who fail to pay the required amounts. Diaz, along with co-defendant Israel Daniel Paez Vargas, allegedly laundered money for the Sinaloa Cartel. Paez Vargas is further accused of recruiting individuals to work for co-defendant Alberto David Benguiat Jimenez, who has been linked to laundering more than $50 million on behalf of the cartel.
Benguiat’s alleged associate, Jose Angel Rivera Zazueta, was also targeted by the sanctions. Rivera Zazueta is accused of being involved in fentanyl trafficking, importing precursor chemicals from China to Mexico to manufacture fentanyl, MDMA, crystal methamphetamine, and ketamine.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that its money laundering investigations have led to charges against 51 individuals, major drug seizures, and the confiscation of over $4 million. In addition to the indictments, the U.S. Treasury has also sanctioned six people and seven companies suspected of laundering money for different factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. These sanctions follow the cartel’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization under the Trump administration.
The Treasury emphasized that the cartel’s financial operations rely heavily on laundered money, facilitated by a network of front companies and shell corporations, often using currency exchange businesses and bulk cash pickups along the U.S.-Mexico border. The sanctions also make it illegal for anyone to conduct business with the individuals and entities listed, threatening civil and criminal penalties for violators.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stressed the importance of targeting the financial facilitators of drug cartels, saying, “Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today.” Bessent reiterated the government’s commitment to using all available tools to dismantle the cartels’ operations.
This latest move follows President Donald Trump’s recent decision to designate the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. While the terrorism designation may not immediately expand military action, law enforcement experts argue that it provides additional legal tools to dismantle cartel operations, which now extend far beyond drug trafficking to other illicit industries like avocado production and migrant smuggling.
