Ethereum Wallet Tied to Sinaloa Cartel Sanctioned by U.S. Government
The wallet is tied to a money laundering operation that transfers proceeds from fentanyl sales to Sinaloa cartel leaders in Mexico, officials said.
Sep 26, 2023 at 2:45 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/CJAX6OS4LRCSXHOB4MEKPE7TQY.jpg)
OFAC sanctions Ethereum wallet (Pixabay)
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The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned an Ethereum wallet tied to Jimenez Castro, a Mexican male with ties to the Sinaloa cartel.
Castro is one of 10 names listed on OFAC's sanctions list as a part of a counter narcotics operation, according to a published list on OFAC's website.
The wallet in question was first active in January or this year and received around $740,000 in deposits to Binance in a two month period, data from Arkham shows.
A U.S. Treasury press release states that Jimenez Castro "operates money laundering organization that uses virtual currency and wire transfers, among other methods, to transfer proceeds from illicit fentanyl sales in the United States to Sinaloa Cartel leaders in Mexico."
OFAC sanctioned a group of cryptocurrency wallets tied to the North Korean government earlier this year.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.
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