José Díaz Briseño/Agencia Reforma
Monday, January 30, 2023 | 12:58
Washington.- The United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Mexican José Ángel Rivera Zazueta, alias “El Flaco”, who is considered one of the main lieutenants of the Sinaloa Cartel for the trafficking of chemical precursors from China to Mexico, for the production of fentanyl.
Located since 2020 by the Italian authorities as a close associate of the Sinaloan drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Rivera Zazueta would have, according to the Treasury, global operations that include contacts in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and Europe for the trafficking and manufacture of illegal drugs.
“Illicit fentanyl has caused unprecedented overdose deaths in the US, with the majority of these drugs coming from Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, who use East Asian precursor chemicals,” said the Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Intelligence. Financial, Brian Nelson.
In addition to Rivera Zazueta, the US Treasury sanctioned two other alleged members of his network of operators: the Mexican Nelton Santiso Águila and the Guatemalan Jason Antonio Yang López, for their involvement in the illegal importation of precursors for synthetic drugs destined for the United States.
Also known as “Miguel Ángel Rivera Salas,” Rivera Zazueta works closely with the Chinese shipping company Shanghai Fast Fine Chemicals, which, according to the US Treasury, exports falsely identified precursor chemicals from Asia, and for which he was sanctioned in 2021.
According to the US, the precursors trafficked by Rivera Zazueta are not only used for the manufacture of fentanyl but also for the production of other synthetic drugs in Mexico such as methamphetamine, ketamine, ecstasy and the hallucinogenic drug known as 2C-B.
The inclusion of Rivera Zazueta and his partners on the Treasury Department’s blacklist freezes any of their assets that may be under US jurisdiction, in addition to prohibiting US citizens and entities from doing any type of transaction with any of their companies.
In February 2020, the Italian Finance Guard reported the seizure of 406 kilos of cocaine from Colombia, transported by a drug trafficking cell that was coordinated by Rivera Zazueta, whom an informant of the Italian authorities located as a lieutenant of Zambada García. .
As previously reported by the so-called Operation Halcón, carried out by various European police forces in 2021, Zazueta García was not only involved in trafficking precursors but also large amounts of cocaine that involved his coordination from Colombia, Central America and Mexico.
