The Department of Justice on Friday announced charges in a fentanyl-trafficking investigation against more than two dozen members of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, including the four sons of now-imprisoned cartel leader El Chapo, known as "the Chapitos."
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the charges take aim at "the largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world – run by the Sinaloa Cartel, and fueled by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies."
Garland said the charges target suppliers in China who sell fentanyl precursors to the cartel, a Guatemalan-based broker who purchases the chemicals on behalf of the cartel, operators of labs in Mexico where the cartel manufactures fentanyl, a weapons supplier who provides the cartel with firearms smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., leaders of the cartel's security forces, money launderers and the cartel’s leaders.
