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US Treasury Dep't Identifies Sinaloa Drug Kingpins

The Treasury Department has identified eight more bosses from the Sinaloa drug cartel pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act which subjects their U.S. assets to seizure and bans Americans from conducting business with them as reported by Damien Cave for The New York Times.  The move is largely symbolic which will have little, if any, impact on the Sinaloa bosses or their operations because they have so few permanent assets in the United States and law enforcement traditionally is reluctant to prosecute the banks and other businesses which launder their money into Mexico.  Cartel head and Forbes-listed billionaire Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been designated for years with no adverse consequence on his drug racket.  Indeed, the latest kingpin designations were met with a cynical response as reported by Lindsey Reiser for KPHO:  "experts tell us this information won't have any impact on that crime unless we do something about it."

CBS 5 - KPHO

Further reading that may be of interest:

A Call For U.S. Treasury Department To Designate Gambino Crime FamilyAs A Transnational Criminal Organization Under Executive Order 13581

Sinaloa Drug Cartel Has Midwest Distribution Hub

Apparently the drug cartels have not yet received Janet Napolitano's memo about the secure border.

The Sinaloa cartel continues to use Chicago, IL and St. Louis, MO as distribution hubs in the Midwest as reported by Farrah Fazal for KSDK:  "Sinaloa cartel members get drugs into the U.S. on ships in the Pacific Ocean, rafts across the Rio Grande River, semi trucks on highways and single engine planes across the Southwest border."

The Mexican drug cartels move $50 billion in bulk product and bundled cash across the border each year, and have established supply lines, distribution networks and operational cells in hundreds of communties throughout the United States.

And yet Barack Obama and his political hacks in the Department of Homeland Security insist that the border is secure as they attempt to pass so-called "immigration reform" in a cynical bid to expand the voter rolls for the Democrat Party.

Mexico Arrests El Chapo's Father-In-Law

Mexican federal police have arrested the father-in-law of Sinaloa cartel boss and Forbes-listed billionaire Joaquin Guzman in Agua Prieta near the Arizona border as reported by BBC News:  "Ines Coronel grew marijuana in the northern state of Sonora to smuggle into the United States, officials say."  Coronel's 22-year-old beauty queen daughter Emma is Guzman's third wife, and in August 2011 the pretty thing gave birth to twins at a Los Angeles County hospital in order that the drug lord's children could have U.S. citizenship as then reported by the Los Angeles Times.  No doubt in a generation the narco money will become completely legitimate, and the Guzman family will become political royalty in the United States.  Ain't that just the way it all works in this great country?

Queen Of The Pacific Pleads Guilty

Sometimes the drug kingpin actually is a queen.

Sandra Avila Beltran dubbed "Queen of the Pacific" pled guilty yesterday in a Miami federal court to her role in the Sinaloa cartel which once was headed by her boyfriend Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez as reported by Fox News Latino:  "the dark-haired Mexican beauty stood out in a narco-trafficking world dominated by men and the news media have long been fascinated with her, ever since she was arrested in 2007 in southern Mexico City."

 2012 Extradition:

Women increasingly are getting a seat at the table in "key management roles" with the Mexican drug cartels according to the new book Female Bosses of Narco-Traffic by Arturo Santamaria as reported by Pablo Perez for AFP:  "'The narco-traffickers will become stronger as a result of this,' wrote Santamaria. 'They will be more difficult to fight because the women appear to be acting smarter.'"

Of course, the drug trade is a rough business, and the fairer sex can't expect any special treatment.  Last year cocaine queens Lorena Henao Montoya and Griselda Blanco were gunned down in separate instances on the Colombian streets.

Further reading that may be of interest:

Unladylike Rubouts For Cocaine Queens

Former Firefighter Moved Money For Drug Cartel

A former firefighter from Albuquerque, NM has pled guilty to laundering money for the Sinaloa cartel as reported by Kim Vallez for KRQE:  "Steve Chavez, one of 15 defendants originally charged with 29 crimes, pleaded guilty to a single count admitting he structured financial transactions to hide nearly $200,000 for the cartel by filtering it through several different bank accounts."