The Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed drug trafficking charges against the two leaders of the Mexican drug cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization (LNFM) and offered up to $8 million for information leading to their arrest.
Brothers Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, are “responsible for the cartel’s resurgence” over the past decade, according to a DOJ official.
“These brothers were charged by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia with various crimes related to the manufacture, distribution and importation of massive quantities of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States,” Michael Herskowitz, chief of the Narcotics Section at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta, said at a press conference Tuesday.
The Treasury Department also sanctioned the brothers, and the State Department has offered $3 and $5 million rewards for information leading to their arrest. The men are currently in Mexico, officials said.
“It is our hope that these multimillion dollar rewards will encourage people to come forward with what they know about their Olascoaga brothers, both here in the United States and in cities and towns in Mexico, who are most impacted by the cartels violence,” Herskowitz said.
DEA Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge Jae Chong told reporters that the foreign terrorist organization designation that the Trump administration has leveled against the cartels has “allowed law enforcement to apply enhanced counterterrorism authorities to drug cartel operations, something we believe that will have a greater impact in the fight to protect our communities.”
“In 24 hours, DEA and our partners have seized over 100 pounds of fentanyl, $320,000 of suspected drug proceeds, guns, and made 22 arrests, 11 of which are illegal criminals,” Chong said.
The fentanyl they seized was enough to kill 3.5 million people, according to Chong.
In a separate indictment, the Justice Department also charged seven individuals with allegedly funneling the proceeds of the cartel’s activity through a business in Georgia.
Agents “analyzed the money service businesses transactions and determined that the cash was wired to Mexico, but was transferred in small increments, as did not raise suspicion by federal regulators during an approximate period of two months, these individuals allegedly laundered over $1 million in drug proceeds smuggled to Mexico,” Herskowitz said.
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