The Justice Department plans to announce charges against more than 24 Mexican drug cartel leaders and members, according to senior law enforcement officials.
The announcement is expected on Friday morning and is part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s push to target the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) groups, the officials say. This includes the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel members earlier this year, like Ovidio Guzman, the son of the cartel’s former drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Jorge Ivan Gastelum Avila and Jose “N.”
It’s unclear if charges will be announced against the three sons of El Chapo Guzman, Ovidio, Ivan and Alfredo, who allegedly help lead the Sinaloa Cartel.
Several suspects are in custody at the time but most are still wanted, the officials said.
The Biden administration also announced Friday that it is increasing cooperation with Mexico to combat the trafficking of fentanyl coming north into the U.S. while also cracking down on the trafficking of guns going south into Mexico.
NBC News was first to report that the two countries were negotiating such an agreement.
Biden visited Mexico in January and senior Biden administration officials headed to Mexico City last month for pre-arranged talks about the fentanyl crisis as the news unfolded that drug cartel gunmen had kidnapped four Americans in Mexico, two of whom were shot dead.
Ahead of the talks with senior Biden officials, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stood before television cameras to proclaim that fentanyl is America’s problem and falsely stated that none of the dangerous drug is produced in Mexico, marking just how badly the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated in what used to be called the drug war.
U.S. officials and international experts say the vast majority of the fentanyl sold in the U.S. is produced in Mexico using precursors imported from China.
“The Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel and their…
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