U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced significant steps on Thursday morning to address the opioid crisis, including restrictions against some individuals connected to a Mexican criminal organization that local and federal law enforcement said were known to be involved in the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States and Georgia.
Yellen claimed that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had sanctioned eight individuals connected to La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a violent gang that has recently begun to distribute the substance in various Mexican cities. During a speech at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in downtown Atlanta, Yellen claimed. According to authorities, its members frequently force people to enter the country illegally and offer the drugs, citing metro Atlanta as a major hub for them and their families, according to authorities.
” The officials we’re targeting have carried out terrible acts, from controlling medication pathways, to arms prostitution, to money laundering, to death. Two of those charged with money laundering and conspiracy to sell heroin have been indicted by Georgia’s authorities, according to Yellen. Our punishment will cut off the cartel’s officials from their misplaced funds and make it more difficult for them to affix deadly fentanyl to our roads.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network releases new information and guidance to U.S. financial institutions to help them identify and document economic shifts of materials used to manufacture morphine and other chemical drugs.
The office will be able to observe illegal drug wealth and pursue criminals who profit from it by letting regional and local banks share that information, according to Yellen. By the end of this year, the initiative did reach 10 cities across the United States.
Usually, big cartels rely on barrel companies to dirty and keep their profits, officials said. The Corporate Transparency Act, which became effective in January, helps to fight “illicit fund” by requiring some businesses to document who owns or controls them.
” Our work with associates and at home is rooted in the knowledge that organizations that sell fentanyl have many advantages over other organizations: They rely on access to finance facilities and the U.S. money to make payment and financing buys,” Yellen said. The Treasury Department now has a unique capacity to destroy and destroy their businesses, according to the statement. We’re mainly focused on two places related to today’s activities: sanctions and collaborations with economic institutions”.
President Joe Biden has made the narcotic issue a goal after drug overdose deaths related to fentanyl and other chemical opioids , have skyrocketed , in recent years. Since 2022, more than 1 million people have died from drug overdoses in the United States, the majority of which were caused by fentanyl and other chemical drugs.
” It’s a major challenge to combat the smuggling of fentanyl. It will not be solved overnight”, Yellen said. However, let me state unambiguously that the chairman and I will take every precaution possible to overcome this crisis.
In Georgia, overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased 200 % between 2019 to 2021, Yellen said. She called those numbers” remarkable, almost unfathomable”. Last month, an Atlanta Journal- Constitution research found that Georgia prisoners , are extremely dying from using all manner of medicines, including heroin and morphine.
However, Yellen claimed that advancements have been made.
According to officials, more methadone has been seized at ports of entry in the past two years than it has been combined in the previous five times. Gov. Brian Kemp just signed a bill into law , making naloxone, an narcotic- turnaround substance, more easily available in universities and government buildings. Yellen also launched the Counter- Fentanyl Strike Force last year, which uses the Treasury’s expertise to , help fight financial crime.
An effort has been made to strengthen cooperation with China, a key source of the chemicals used to make fentanyl outside of the United States. According to Yellen,” collaborating with Mexico is also crucial,” and she also emphasized the value of collaborating with financial institutions on both sides of the border. CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel were two other Mexican cartels that the U.S. law enforcement has targeted in recent months.
Thursday’s visit was Yellen’s second to Atlanta this year. In March, she , toured a solar cell manufacturing plant , in Norcross to highlight the Biden administration’s clean energy policies.
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