The United States Sanctions the Guatemalan Los Huistas Cartel

The United States imposed economic sanctions on the Guatemalan drug trafficking group Los Huistas, linked to Mexican cartels, and offered a reward for information that would allow its leader to be arrested, the government reported Friday.

Washington is offering up to $10 million for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of Guatemalan drug trafficker Eugenio Darío Molina-López (“Molina”), leader of Los Huistas, based in the Huehuetenango region of northwestern Guatemala, bordering Mexico, according to a statement from the State Department.

In addition, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reported in another statement that it imposed economic sanctions on Molina, Alec Baldomero Samayoa Recinos (alias Chicharra) and others associated with the group “for drug trafficking”.

“Criminal groups like Los Huistas contribute to instability in Guatemala and the region,” said Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

Since at least 2012, Molina López and Samayoa Recinos have led Los Huistas, which is trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin from their base in northern Guatemala to the United States through Mexican organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the statement said.

The Huistas also produce heroin and methamphetamine for export to the United States, where they are often consumed mixed with fentanyl, which can significantly increase the chance of overdose and death.

This Guatemalan cartel controls poppy fields in the mountainous region that encompasses the departments of Huehuetenango and San Marcos and has imported chemical precursors from China to make methamphetamine, the statement states, which also accuses it of money laundering.

As a result of the sanctions, OFAC blocks all assets and interests in the United States and prohibits transactions made by Americans or within the United States for these individuals.

On Friday, a federal court in the District of Columbia accused Samayoa-Recinos and her son-in-law Freddy Arnoldo Salazar Flores (alias Freshco, Boyca, Boyka, Torojo, Flaquillo, and Flaco) of being involved in the distribution of five kilos of cocaine for import into the United States.

Salazar Flores is a member of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), the regional political representation body of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

ERL/RSR