May 20, 2026

OFAC Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Network, Including Six Ethereum Addresses

TRM Team

OFAC Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Network, Including Six Ethereum Addresses

On May 20, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 11 individuals and two entities connected to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) for their roles in laundering drug proceeds. The action added six Ethereum addresses to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.

Key takeaways

OFAC designated 11 individuals and two entities connected to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel on May 20, 2026, adding six Ethereum addresses to the SDN list.
Five of the six addresses are attributed to a single individual — a pattern consistent with multi-wallet fragmentation used to layer illicit funds.
Cryptocurrency is one component of cartel laundering infrastructure, layered alongside bulk cash networks and Chinese money laundering organizations.
Over 50% of OFAC-designated cryptocurrency addresses in 2025 were associated with the illicit drug market.

Who was designated?

The following individuals were added to the SDN list:

Castulo Bojorquez Chaparro
Baltazar Saenz Aguilar
Luis Arnulfo Moreno Zamora
Amalia Margarita Romero Moreno
Liliana Orozco Romero
Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles
Rodrigo Alarcon Palomares
Jesus Alonso Aispuro Felix
Noe de Jesus Castro Rocha
Alfredo Orozco Romero
Fredi Ismael Garcia Sandoval

Two entities were also designated: Gorditas Chiwas and Grupo Especial Mamba Negra, S. de R.L. de C.V. Cartel networks regularly use commercial entities to facilitate and obscure financial flows — a documented pattern in enforcement actions targeting CDS-linked networks.

Cryptocurrency addresses

OFAC identified six Ethereum addresses in the action. Five are attributed to Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles:

0xaC4cC4B68ea24BbFAAC8fD127B67Ed445ACcCE22
0x4F428c11Dc82388fa5136D636e613ad923Eb700B
0xf2235d55b2950a0b1317469d72d07ae65b2e27cb
0x32dA24Ca413F3E7B53145D4737e172C3bdF81e3e
0x038989cbb1710c72b9920dc4fa529158f463e72c

One address is attributed to Liliana Orozco Romero:

0x14779CEC0B117d5194c750C55Ea1f42086631964

Context: Sinaloa Cartel and the FTO designation

OFAC's action targets a cartel operating under a broader enforcement framework that expanded in early 2025, when the US Secretary of State designated CDS — along with the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and several other Mexican drug trafficking organizations — as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Under 18 USC 2339B, knowingly providing material support to a designated FTO is a federal crime, extending enforcement exposure beyond traditional drug trafficking and money laundering statutes to counterterrorism tools. Today's OFAC action falls under the cartel's existing sanctions regime, targeting the financial networks that sustain CDS operations.

A pattern of cartel cryptocurrency designations

Today's action is part of a series of OFAC designations linking Sinaloa Cartel networks to cryptocurrency. The first came in September 2023, when OFAC sanctioned nine individuals connected to the cartel's Los Chapitos faction, including Mario Alberto Jimenez Castro. According to OFAC and the Department of Justice, Jimenez Castro directed US-based couriers to collect cash from fentanyl sales and deposit it into cryptocurrency wallets for direct payment to cartel leadership. That action included the first cartel-linked Ethereum address ever publicly identified by OFAC.

Since then, enforcement actions have documented more complex typologies. A 2024 civil forfeiture complaint described a professional money laundering network that processed more than USD 15 million in cryptocurrency through a single exchange account before dispersing proceeds across TRON and Ethereum wallets. In a separate case, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles alleged that a CDS-linked network laundered more than USD 50 million in drug proceeds through Chinese underground bankers, layering cryptocurrency transactions with trade-based money laundering to obscure the funds' origins.

How cryptocurrency fits into cartel laundering

Cryptocurrency is one component of cartel financial infrastructure — not a standalone method. Cartel networks blend bulk cash placement, trade-based mechanisms, and digital asset settlement to move proceeds across jurisdictions. The documented laundering workflow typically runs as follows:

US-based brokers collect bulk cash from drug sales
Cash is structured into bank accounts or exchanged for stablecoins
Digital assets are pooled and layered across exchanges and wallets
Funds are transferred to Mexico-based brokers
Brokers pay cartel networks in local currency

Chinese money laundering organizations (CMLOs) play an increasingly central role in this pipeline. These networks match cartel cash in the United States with demand from Chinese nationals seeking to move capital abroad, settling accounts via cryptocurrency — often at fees of 0.5–5%. By bypassing formal banking channels entirely, CMLOs reduce cartel exposure to correspondent bank monitoring and accelerate cross-border settlement.

Cryptocurrency also connects cartel networks to the upstream supply chain. TRM research shows that approximately 97% of Chinese drug precursor manufacturers — the chemical suppliers providing fentanyl ingredients to Mexican cartels — accept cryptocurrency. On-chain inflows to individual Chinese precursor manufacturers grew from USD 30.9 million in 2023 to USD 39.1 million in 2025, reflecting sustained demand across the synthetic drug supply chain.

Mario Alberto Jimenez Castro, who preceded Ojeda Aviles, directed US-based couriers to pick up cash in the United States and deposit it into various virtual currency wallets for payment directly to the cartel for reinvestment in fentanyl production, as shown here in TRM's Graph Visualizer.

What this means for compliance teams and VASPs

Any virtual asset service provider (VASP) that processes transactions involving today's designated Ethereum addresses now carries sanctions exposure. Institutions must screen against the updated SDN list without delay.

Today's action is part of a sustained enforcement pattern. Over 50% of OFAC-designated cryptocurrency addresses in 2025 were associated with the illicit drug market. For VASPs with exposure to LATAM-facing flows, OTC activity, or high-risk exchange counterparties, cartel-linked risk is a live compliance concern, not an edge case.

The structure of today's designation — five Ethereum addresses attributed to a single individual — also points to a documented typology: multi-wallet fragmentation used to layer and obscure transactions. Compliance programs that screen only against known SDN addresses without examining counterparty relationships will miss exposure that sits one or two hops from the designated wallets.

Frequently asked questions

1. What did OFAC designate in the May 20, 2026 Sinaloa Cartel action?

OFAC designated 11 individuals and two entities — Gorditas Chiwas and Grupo Especial Mamba Negra, S. de R.L. de C.V. — for their alleged roles in laundering drug proceeds connected to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. The action added six Ethereum addresses to the SDN list.

2. Which Ethereum addresses were added to the SDN list?

Five addresses are attributed to Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles (0xaC4cC4B68ea24BbFAAC8fD127B67Ed445ACcCE22, 0x4F428c11Dc82388fa5136D636e613ad923Eb700B, 0xf2235d55b2950a0b1317469d72d07ae65b2e27cb, 0x32dA24Ca413F3E7B53145D4737e172C3bdF81e3e, 0x038989cbb1710c72b9920dc4fa529158f463e72c) and one to Liliana Orozco Romero (0x14779CEC0B117d5194c750C55Ea1f42086631964).

3. How do Mexican cartels use cryptocurrency to launder money?

Cartels use cryptocurrency as one layer in a broader laundering chain. Cash from US drug sales is converted to stablecoins, pooled and layered across wallets and exchanges, then transferred to Mexico-based brokers who settle in local currency. Chinese money laundering organizations (CMLOs) accelerate this by matching cartel cash with Chinese capital flight demand, settling accounts via cryptocurrency at fees of 0.5–5%.

4. What does this designation mean for compliance teams and VASPs?

Any VASP that processes transactions involving the designated Ethereum addresses now carries sanctions exposure and must screen the updated SDN list without delay. Multi-wallet fragmentation means exposure often sits one or two hops from a designated address, so screening counterparty relationships — not just the SDN list directly — is essential.

5. Is the Sinaloa Cartel a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization?

Yes. The US Secretary of State designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in early 2025. Under 18 USC 2339B, knowingly providing material support to a designated FTO is a federal crime, extending enforcement liability beyond drug trafficking and AML statutes to counterterrorism frameworks.