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Monday, July 11, 2022

"El Mencho's' Cartel Is Buying Everything": U.S. Sanctions High-Caliber Arms Dealer

"Ivan" for Borderland Beat 

Obed Christian Sepúlveda Portillo is added to the US government's list of targets. Credit: Treasury Department


OFAC designated Obed Christian Sepúlveda Portillo, accusing him of buying weapons in the U.S. and illegally sending them to CJNG assassins.

 

The US government on Monday signed up an alleged trafficker of large-caliber weapons who has swelled the arsenal of Mexico's largest and most violent cartel, the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG).


The person designated by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is Obed Christian Sepúlveda Portillo, 40, from Jalisco, Mexico.

According to OFAC, Sepúlveda Portillo "traffics high-caliber weapons and ammunition from the United States into Mexico on behalf of the CJNG." It adds that this cartel "relies on high-powered weaponry ... to employ extreme violence in furtherance of its drug trafficking activities."


OFAC mentioned that the designation of Obed Christian Sepúlveda Portillo is the result of "support" and "cooperation" from the Mexican government.


"The CJNG's power and violence are only possible because of its ability to obtain high-powered weapons, which are used to protect drug trafficking routes, territory, and other illicit assets," said Brian E. Nelson, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, in a press release.


"The Treasury Department is actively targeting those who support and supply drug trafficking and criminal organizations, especially those involved in the production and distribution of synthetic opioids that claim the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year," the official added.


500,000 weapons trafficked each year

Most of the arsenal used by organized crime groups in Mexico is purchased from US gun shops, according to various reports. The administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sued six US arms manufacturers, blaming them for enriching themselves at the expense of the escalating violence in his country. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Between 70% and 90% of the guns that are seized in Mexico were manufactured in the U.S. and most were held by members of organized crime, the lawsuit claims.


"For decades, the (Mexican) government and its citizens have been victims of a deadly flood of military-style and other particularly lethal weapons flowing from the United States across the border into criminal hands in Mexico," it states.


It is estimated that more than 500,000 U.S. guns illegally cross the southern border each year.


The six defendant companies produce more than 68% of that weaponry, which means they sell more than 340,000 pistols, rifles and machine guns annually that flow from their plants in Massachusetts and other states to cartel lairs miles away, according to the Mexican government.


"El Mencho's cartel is buying everything.

Currently, cartels are interested in acquiring .50 caliber sniper rifles, because with these they can go through an armored truck, even shoot down a helicopter, as a hitman the CJNG did a few years ago to confront a military operation.


The Jalisco Cartel used similar weapons to try to assassinate Mexico City's Public Security Secretary in 2020.


Earlier this year, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operation broke up a cell that acquired military-style weapons for the CJNG and hid them in a suburb of Los Angeles, California.

"The 'El Mencho' cartel is buying everything," read a Facebook message sent by an arms dealer to one of his accomplices on May 26, 2020. The accused Marco Santillan Jr. was referring to the interest of the CJNG, led by drug trafficker Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, in giving his gunmen powerful weapons.


In the operation called 'Semper Infidelis,' authorities seized six assault rifles, more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as more than $300,000 in gun parts and kits to assemble several six-barrel rotary machine guns, or "mini-guns," capable of firing up to 6,000 shots per minute.


They purchased the arsenal from stores in Oregon and Nevada. They obtained the bullets from stores across the country. They then hid the merchandise in Pahrump, Nevada, where Santillan lived, and at his father's home in Whittier.


The investigation included eavesdropping on this group's phone and Facebook communications. In one of those messages, on July 13, 2020, Santillan Jr. sent photos and videos showing several Barrett .50 caliber rifles and FN-SCAR rifles, as well as firearm parts and ammunition.


Santillan, his father and other alleged accomplices were charged with attempted arms smuggling and conspiracy to violate export administration regulations, which carry sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

Mencho Oseguera 

UNIVISION 



30 comments:

  1. Funny because Pahrump is a big white supremacist area.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Money has no color vato

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    2. The FBI did not get involved until the weapons and ammo got delivered, AFTER the checks cleared, these crooks get paid for their drugs with weapons, or they don't get paid.
      The weapons merchants and manufacturers will never get molested, even if the criminals and the victims are all white.

      Delete
  2. “El Mencho is buying everything” was written on a Facebook post by some clown who got everyone caught up…. Bum. This has been going on for 40 or 50 years now, it’s not just CJNG.

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    Replies
    1. 11:26 no te enojes puñetin, he was buying everything from this guys no from every other arms dealer no te salgas del calzon

      Delete
  3. Mencho looks as healthy as an OX in that picture!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A picture thats 10 yrs old hes deader then epstein

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    2. More than 20 years old.

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    3. Gsonoran ati lla nadie te cree eres puro pajaro nalgon igual de drogo que Sir

      Delete
    4. @ sonora how do you he is dead tho? Just cause someone said it lol rumors are rumors

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    5. 7:12 your slow as fuck if you think mencho is dead

      Delete
    6. 7:45 come te llamas, paloma???

      Delete
    7. 5:37 el pajaro chupamirtos

      Delete
    8. 1:06 good try in saying mencho is young in the picture.
      That's the last of pictures he let himself get photographed. That was a many years ago, no one has pictures of what he looked like, when he died in February, people said he looked old, frail and skinny.

      Delete
  4. Where is the Italian mafia? They don't runs shit anymore??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1:12 Sammy the Bull Grabanos and Michael Franzese do videos about Our Thing, But both are still hurting from the ass grabs Rudi Giuliani gave them for their cooperation that ended with La Cosa Nostra king pins in prison, Donald Trump paid Fat Tony Salerno for his all concrete trump tower with a life sentence via rudi, and they got the Red Mafiya to replace the Italians, the russians still use the donal' and rudi, the republican't party, roger stone, the tea party, the Oath Keepers, and a few democrat COONS, they even have a few US military in their back pocket with their ass firmly held like greased pigs'.
      Thw russians also gave the son of SCOTUS retired judge Anthony Kennedy a job in their Cyprus Deutsche Bank in exchange for his resignation to get one more corrupt trump judge in...

      Delete
    2. It’s the Mexicans now. Whites, blacks, and others get put in check!

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    3. In Italy. Ndrangheta alone rakes 53 billion Euros annually

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    4. 9:39 hi reddit kid
      The yukuza is the best.

      Delete
    5. 9:39 ndrangheta are school kids compared to the cartels

      Delete
    6. 9:39 Ndranghetta boss was caught at work, in Italy, selling popsicles from a pushcart...

      Delete
    7. Gibberish zombie in the house.

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    8. 4:09 es la lengua mas mamona del este, del norte,.del sur y del oeste...

      Delete
    9. Ain't no criminal organization on earth that makes 53 billion a year FOH

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    10. Drug trade globally is raking close to 1 trillion dollars yearly

      Delete
  5. It is said that "the eyes are the window to the soul". If you look into Mencho's eyes you see darkness and evil.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lopez Obrador is quick to blame the gun manufacturers for the guns coming to Mexico, he won't win a dime in the lawsuit.
    It's criminals that buy the weapons, straw hat buyers. Of Obrador knew better, he should have had check points a long time ago, for people coming to Mexico, but that to would easily become curupt, and guns would still make it in. Very minimal is done to curtail cartel violence, bribes come cjng is taking over all of Mexico, or at least trying with minimal resistance.

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  7. Bet that something comes from the lawsuit!!! All them weapons aren't even legally purchased in the states, let alone in Mexico where they're illegal period for civilians. If all this military grade weaponary is being purchased over and over again shouldn't that raise an eyebrow with the manufacturers? But instead they turn a blind eye. Or it doesn't matter who the weapons get sold to? With your logic might as well be no gun laws. Yeah, government has to look out for people trying to do harm, but that doesn't mean that a manufacturer should only care about profit and ignore red flags, especially when people are losing their lives. They bare responsibility, fore with out their product, that harm would not be possible. If a pharmaceutical company could be held liable for drug overdoses, then a weapons manufacturer can for sure be held accountable. Most drugs are taken voluntary, most gunshot recipients are not voluntary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The manufacturer is not behind the gun shop counter saying who can buy a gun and who, cannot. The gun salesman is selling them. Dios MiO.

      Delete
  8. Mencho looks like a common meth head. He’s got the bubble head like they all get when they stay on that shit too long. His face looks all sunk in. Super tweaker

    ReplyDelete

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