U.S. Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Crypto Laundering Network Linked to Fentanyl Trade
The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned individuals and entities linked to the Sinaloa Cartel for operating a sophisticated Sinaloa Cartel crypto money laundering network that converted bulk drug cash into cryptocurrency and transferred it back to the cartel in Mexico. The action, announced Wednesday, stems from a coordinated investigation led by the Homeland Security Task Force with support from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
At the centre of the sanctions is Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, the alleged head of the laundering network, who is accused of facilitating the conversion of cash into cryptocurrency that was later transferred to the Sinaloa Cartel. Ojeda Aviles became the primary money launderer for the cartel’s Los Chapitos faction following the murder of his predecessor, Mario Alberto Jimenez Castro, who was sanctioned by OFAC in September 2023 for laundering fentanyl proceeds through crypto.
His associate, Jesus Alonso Aispuro Felix, was also added to the sanctions list and is allegedly responsible for similarly transferring proceeds from the drug trade via the blockchain. Aispuro Felix manages the digital side of the operation, brokering high-volume transfers of drug proceeds through designated crypto addresses.
The Treasury’s OFAC sanctions list additions include six Ethereum network addresses, five of which are connected to Ojeda Aviles. While most of the addresses have been inactive for years, one ETH address ending in “e27cb” was active on April 27, sending $894 worth of Tether’s USDT stablecoin after more than a year of inactivity.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made clear the administration’s position on cartel financing. “As President Trump has made clear, this administration will not allow narco-terrorists to flood our borders with poison,” Bessent said in an official statement. “Treasury will continue to target terrorist cartels and their fentanyl trafficking networks to protect our communities and keep America safe.”
The Treasury described the Sinaloa Cartel as a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for a significant portion of the illicit fentanyl trafficked into the United States, a drug it says kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. The Department of State formally designated the cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on February 20, 2025.
The Sinaloa Cartel crypto money laundering scheme reflects a growing pattern among criminal organisations exploiting digital assets to move cross-border funds beyond the reach of traditional financial monitoring. Federal agencies have previously linked cryptocurrency networks to cartel financing operations across Latin America, and a July 2025 report from the US Department of Justice confirmed that the DEA had seized more than $10 million in crypto assets connected to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Authorities in Brazil have also been active on this front, civil police in São Paulo dismantled a money laundering operation in August 2024 allegedly tied to the Primeiro Comando da Capital, one of Brazil’s largest criminal gangs, which was also accused of using digital assets to launder illicit funds.
The latest OFAC designations signal that the US government is intensifying its use of financial sanctions as a tool against crypto-enabled narco-terrorism, targeting not just individuals but the blockchain infrastructure they rely on.
