The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four people and 11 entities allegedly linked to the Cartel del Noreste (CDN), including businesses involved in everything from horse racing to trucking and construction.
The sanctions were announced on Tuesday, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was committed to protecting the U.S. financial system against misuse by violent cartels such as CDN, which was formerly known as Los Zetas.
“Today’s action exposes Cartel del Noreste’s exploitation of the horse racing sector to launder illicit proceeds and finance cartel operations,” Bessent said.
“This action marks Treasury’s most significant effort to date to disrupt Cartel del Noreste’s financial infrastructure.”
Cartel Has ‘Diverse Commercial Footprint’
The Treasury said CDN had a “diverse commercial footprint” and among those sanctioned were many involved in quarter horse racing, construction, trucking, and the oil and gas industry.
Los Zetas were originally elite Mexican commandos who defected to form the military wing of the Gulf Cartel.
They then broke away and went to war with rival cartels before transforming into CDN, which is based around Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, Texas.
Leaders of Los Zetas traditionally bear a codename, including the letter Z for Zeta, and its founder, Arturo Guzmán Decenas, or Z1, was killed in 2002.
The Treasury pointed out that Los Zetas was responsible for an arson attack on a casino in the Mexican city of Monterrey in August 2011, which killed 52 people, mainly women, and injured dozens.
A chart compiled by the U.S. Treasury showing alleged CDN involvement in Quarter Horse Racing. U.S. Treasury
In a statement, the Treasury said the CDN has a long history of money laundering through the American Quarter Horse racing industry.
It said CDN was founded by Miguel Angel Treviño Morales and his brother Oscar Omar Treviño Morales, who were known as Z-40 and Z-42. They were indicted in 2024.
Z-40 was extradited last year and arraigned in a federal court in Washington.
“Between 2008 and 2012, Z-40 and Z-42 bought and sold racehorses with drug money and trained and raced them in the United States,” the Treasury said.
“Over a 30-month period, Zetas-affiliated front persons and shell companies spent $16 million in New Mexico, Oklahoma, California, and Texas to support the operation and laundered upwards of $22 million for the cartel.”
The Treasury said that in June 2012, the U.S. government seized 455 cartel-owned animals at a horse farm in Oklahoma, and elsewhere.
Cartel Allegedly Controls Racetrack
“CDN’s involvement in horse racing continues to this day. Club La Molienda is a horse racetrack, restaurant, and bar located on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo that is controlled by CDN,” the Treasury said.
The Treasury said CDN purchased horses, many of them from the United States, to race at La Molienda, which it said was controlled by Z-40, but was overseen by other CDN leaders while he is incarcerated in the United States.
A Mexico-based businessman and horse racing enthusiast, Gamaliel Garza Garcia, has also been sanctioned.
“Garza Garcia is involved in horse racing in both Mexico and the United States, racing at some of the most prestigious tracks in California and New Mexico,” the Treasury said.
“Garza Garcia and his horses frequently race at La Molienda.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Garza Garcia’s son Gamaliel Garza Elias has also been sanctioned for his role in the day-to-day running of his father’s construction company, CEGESA.
The Treasury said the company had also been utilized by CDN to funnel money to election campaigns of the cartel’s preferred political candidates.
Also sanctioned is Pablo Cesar Guajardo Alvarez, known as “Takia,” who is allegedly CDN boss for the plaza, or district, of Nuevo Laredo.
Guajardo was arrested in 2020 in connection with the assassination on Jan. 4, 2017, of Ricardo Martinez Chavez, the regional coordinator for the Mexican attorney general’s office, and four others.
It was not immediately clear whether Garza Garcia or Guajardo had legal representatives who could comment on their behalf.
The Treasury also sanctioned Tamex, a Nuevo Laredo-based trucking company, which was linked to two cocaine shipments totaling 52 kilograms, which were found hidden in trailer brake drums.
