Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Authorities with the U.S. Department of the Treasury confirmed Tuesday, they are sanctioning a Mexican arms trafficker with ties to drug cartels.
The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said it is imposing sanctions on Jesus Cisneros Hernandez, for providing or attempting to provide weapons to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion.
Officials sanctioned the cartel in 2015 Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, designating it a criminal group.
Another Mexican national was added to the sanction list at the time.
"CJNG is a violent Mexico-based organization that traffics a significant proportion of the illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs that enter the United States," the Treasury said in a statement.
Cisneros Hernandez was allegedly attempting to supply and traffic high-powered weapons from the United States into Mexico.
A Wisconsin federal grand jury indicted him in 2021 on 22 counts of several different firearms violations.
"CJNG relies on high-powered weapons primarily obtained from the United States to protect its territory while intimidating rivals and governmental authorities," Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian E. Nelson said in a statement.
"CJNG's access to these weapons contributes to its ability to flood the United States with fentanyl and other deadly drugs. Treasury is working with U.S. and Mexican partners to expose, isolate, and disrupt those who facilitate CJNG's lethal activities."
Sanctions are meant to target a person or entity's ability to own or control property and other financial assets in the United States.
Last week, the Treasury sanctioned two Mexican businessmen and four Sinaloa Cartel members in connection with the illicit methamphetamine and fentanyl trade.
In January, a Mexican judge charged seven people for their roles in a multi-year firearms trafficking ring, dating back to 2009. That scheme saw some 2,000 weapons illegally pass across the border from the United States into Mexico.
