The US Department of the Treasury announced new sanctions against five leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), highlighting cryptocurrency tracking as a key tool. This statement, published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on home.treasury.gov, responds to the fentanyl crisis and the murder of Valeria Márquez in May 2025. Those sanctioned are Rubén Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), Ricardo Ruiz Velasco (“RR”), Juan Carlos Flores, María Guadalupe López, and José Antonio López Sánchez.
Past sanctions, applied to El Mencho in 2015 and 2021, and to RR in May 2025, were limited to freezing traditional assets. In 2015, properties in Mexico and bank accounts were frozen under the Kingpin Act; In 2021, assets in California and Texas were added, including accounts belonging to family members. These measures prohibited transactions with US entities but ignored the cryptocurrencies the CJNG has used since 2023.
Today’s sanctions introduce a shift in the tracing and potential confiscation of cryptocurrencies. In addition to freezing US assets and prohibiting transactions, secondary sanctions are being applied to foreign entities. The Treasury identified Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets linked to the sanctioned individuals, with illicit transactions estimated at $5 million in 2025, according to intelligence shared with Mexico.
The focus on cryptocurrencies highlights a gap in past sanctions. Previously, the freeze focused on real estate and bank accounts, ignoring the digital transactions the CJNG has adopted to evade controls. This new measure seeks to cut off a key source of funding, although its implementation faces technical challenges.
Undersecretary Brian Nelson stated that these sanctions aim to reduce the 100,000 annual overdose deaths in the US linked to the CJNG. This contrasts with past sanctions, which targeted specific crimes such as methamphetamine trafficking, without focusing on the cartel’s digital finances.
The projected impact is a 15-20% reduction in the CJNG’s financial operations in the US, surpassing the 10% of previous measures. Cryptocurrency tracking could be decisive, but experts like Jorge Castañeda in El Economista point out that its success depends on Mexican cooperation, which is still uncertain.
In conclusion, today’s sanctions mark a shift toward cryptocurrencies, overcoming the limitations of previous sanctions. However, the challenge of tracking these transactions could limit their effectiveness against the CJNG.