“Ivan” for Borderland Beat
U.S. citizens are prohibited from dealing with José Ángel Rivera Zazueta, after the U.S. government identified him as an alleged leader of a drug trafficking organization dedicated to fentanyl trafficking.
Rivera Zazueta is identified as the leader of a drug manufacturing and trafficking organization based in Culiacán, Sinaloa and Mexico City.
Aristegui Noticias reports that, according to the Treasury Department, “this action was closely coordinated with the government of Mexico and would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
According to the investigation, Rivera Zazueta’s network operates on a global scale with nodes in the United States, Mexico, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Rivera Zazueta is accused of importing precursor chemicals from China to Mexico, which are then used to manufacture synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, ecstasy, crystal methamphetamine, 2C-B and ketamine.
Rivera Zazueta works with Shanghai Fast-Fine Chemicals, a China-based chemical transportation company “that has shipped various precursor chemicals, often with false labels, to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico for the illicit production of fentanyl,” the U.S. government claims.
Additionally, Rivera Zazueta is responsible for the movement of large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, Spain, Italy, Guatemala, Mexico and other countries in Europe and Central America.
In addition to Rivera Zazueta, the U.S. government sanctioned his associates Nelton Santiso Aguila (Santiso Aguila), a Mexican citizen, along with Guatemalan citizen Jason Antonio Yang Lopez, “for assisting in the procurement and importation of fentanyl precursor chemicals into Mexico for the manufacture of drugs destined for the United States.
All property and interests of these individuals in the United States must be blocked and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The regulations prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or persons within the United States involving any property or ownership interest in the property of designated or blocked persons.
If anyone establishes links with these persons they may face civil or criminal penalties.