WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 12 Mexico-based companies and eight individuals accused of supporting the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Officials say the sanctions target associates of the cartel’s Los Chapitos faction, led by two fugitive sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera.
According to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Los Chapitos faction — currently controlled by brothers Archivaldo Iván and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar — oversees large territories across Mexico and remains heavily involved in the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
Among those sanctioned is Sumilab, a Culiacán-based company first designated by OFAC in May 2023 for supplying fentanyl precursor chemicals to Sinaloa Cartel members. The company is run by members of the Favela López family — siblings Víctor Andrés, Francisco, Jorge Luis, and María Gabriela Favela López — along with María Gabriela’s husband, Jairo Verdugo Araujo, and another relative, Gilberto Gallardo García.
Authorities say the family also operates a network of related businesses involved in chemicals, laboratory equipment, and agriculture. Those entities, now sanctioned, include Agrolaren, Viand, Favelab, Fagalab, Qui Lab, and Storelab.
Also sanctioned is Martha Emilia “Martita” Conde Uraga, described by officials as a longtime chemical broker for the Sinaloa Cartel. Operating from warehouses around Culiacán, she allegedly used fraudulent invoicing and front companies to supply precursor chemicals to cartel-linked drug labs. Her family-run companies — Viosma, Prolimph, Salud, and Roco — were also added to the sanctions list.
As a result of the action, all property and interests in property belonging to the designated individuals and companies that fall under U.S. jurisdiction are blocked. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with the sanctioned parties unless authorized by OFAC.
