The Trump administration has moved to sanction El Chapo’s children and the violent fentanyl-trafficking faction Los Chapitos, part of the Sinaloa cartel, following their involvement in the killing of U.S. Marine veteran Nicholas Quets. These designations are part of a broad effort by the Treasury Department to disrupt the cartel’s financial networks and combat the fentanyl crisis. The sanctions were announced in response to the Oct. 18, 2024, killing of Nicholas Quets, a 31-year-old Marine veteran who was ambushed and fatally shot during a carjacking on the Caborca-Altar Highway in northern Mexico.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Los Chapitos, which controls laboratories responsible for introducing fentanyl in counterfeit pills manufactured by the Sinaloa cartel and trafficked to the United States. The action was coordinated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, highlighting the administration’s cross-agency approach to combating drug trafficking. The sanctions also target the two sons of Joaquin