Feds freeze assets of La Linea cartel, reputed boss in killing of El Paso informant
A longtime reputed Mexican drug cartel boss accused of ordering the death of an informant in El Paso 15 years ago is among alleged La Linea cartel leaders recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The U.S. Treasury Department last week announced asset-freezing sanctions against five Mexican citizens and two companies allegedly linked to the La Linea crime organization, which is also known as the name of the current Juárez cartel.
The sanctions target the leadership of the violent Juárez-based crime organization involved in the trafficking of fentanyl, other drugs and migrants in the Texas-Chihuahua border region, the Treasury Department said.
What is La Linea cartel?La Linea, which means "The Line," is believed to have initially emerged as a group of corrupt cops and ex-police officers who were enforcers for the Juárez drug cartel in the 1990s.
La Linea is involved in drug and migrant trafficking, auto thefts, illegal logging and "cobro de piso" (a floor charge, toll or tax) charged to other crime groups for access to the border smuggling corridors it controls, U.S. authorities said.
La Linea is tied to the massacre of three women and six children , who were dual U.S.-Mexican citizens, killed in a rural road ambush in the state of Sonora in 2019, the Treasury Department stated.
La Linea (Juárez cartel) remains a regional narco-trafficking power in the state of Chihuahua even if it is no longer one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico.
Since September 2023, La Linea has been working with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion , also known by the acronym CJNC or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which supplies fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine to La Linea, the Treasury Department said.
The Juárez cartel has been designated by the U.S. government as a "significant foreign narcotics trafficker" under the Kingpin Act since 2004.
'El Chuyin,' La Linea reputed cartel boss wanted in USThe persons financially sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as part of the alleged leadership of La Linea cartel included the accused mastermind behind a notorious drug cartel killing in El Paso known as the Pony Trail case in 2009.
Jesus Salas Aguayo, 48, alias "El Chuyin," allegedly controls a plaza (territory) for the cartel in Chihuahua, the Treasury Department stated. He is also known as Jesus Venzor Salas Aguayo and by the code name of "Zorra Five."
More than a decade ago, Salas Aguayo was allegedly the Juárez cartel's second-in-command and day-to-day leader and overall operations manager in the smuggling of drugs to the United States, according to an FBI wanted poster .
In 2015, Mexican military and federal police forces found two tigers during the raid of a ranch when they arrested Salas Aguayo near Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua.
In December 2019, a judge granted him a conditional release from prison before he ditched a tracking bracelet a month later, according to Mexico news reports. In 2021, he was featured in the U.S. Border Patrol's "Se Busca" border fugitives list.
Salas Aguayo is wanted on U.S. federal drug conspiracy charges and a state capital murder charge in El Paso.
The Pony Trail informant murder caseIn 2009, "El Chuyin" Salas Aguayo was accused of ordering a hit on José Daniel Gonzalez-Galeana, an informant for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who was gunned down outside his middle-class home on Pony Trail Place in far East El Paso.
Gonzalez-Galeana, who owned a trucking business, moved to El Paso on a visa from ICE when cartel violence in Mexico heated up, according to El Paso Times archives. El Paso police detectives suspected he didn't give up his role as a mid-level cartel boss coordinating drug shipments.
At the time, Salas Aguayo was allegedly a cartel lieutenant who was part of a cell of the Juárez cartel with Gonzalez-Galeana known as the "compañia," or the company.
Drug cartels: New Mexico drug trafficker tied to Sinaloa cartel, woman's murder gets life sentenceThe cartel put a bounty on Gonzalez-Galeana because it believed he was an informant or switched allegiances to a rival organization. The hit was possibly retribution for the arrest of Pedro "El Tigre" Sanchez, a reputed high-ranking cartel leader who had been caught by the Mexican army a year earlier, police had said.
The hit was organized by Ruben Rodriguez-Dorado, a cartel member who was also an ICE informant who had the same "handler" as Gonzalez-Galeana.
El Paso police detectives arrested the four members of the hit team that stalked and killed Gonzalez-Galeana, including U.S. Army Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, then 18, who shot Gonzalez-Galeana eight times. The team was to be paid $5,000 each.
Rodriguez-Dorado, now 46, and Apodaca, now 33, were each sentenced to life in prison. Both remain incarcerated in Texas prisons. Salas Aguayo has remained out of reach in Mexico.
Reputed La Linea leaders sanctioned by US Treasury DepartmentOther reputed key members of La Linea sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department were identified as:
Josefa Yadira Carrasco Leyva, 45, alias "La Wera" and "La Wera Palenque," is allegedly a senior member of La Linea involved in narcotics, human trafficking and weapons smuggling. Mexican federal agents arrested her on a firearm charges after a raid on a home in Chihuahua City in October 2023.
Jorge Adrian Ortega Gallegos, 41, alias "El Naranjas," a reputed high-ranking member who allegedly served as "La Oficina," ("the office") as the cartel communications manager.
Heber Nieto Fierro, 49, is allegedly a drug trafficker and money launderer for La Linea. He owns two companies R. y H. El Remate and Soluciones Tecnologias y Paqueteria Tres sanctioned by the Treasury Department.
Adrian Aguayo, 44, aka Adrian Aguayo Salas and "La Roberta," is allegedly an associate of La Linea who controls a plaza (territory) in Chihuahua state. He has a presence in the area of Villa Ahumada, according to a Mexican news report .
DEA, Mexico helped coordinate sanctionsThe sanctions block the designated persons' assets in the U.S. and are intended to disrupt the flow of money used by a crime organization to operate, the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions were issued by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control in coordination with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit.
More: Mexico National Guard finds arsenal after border drug cartel shootout in Valley of Juárez"President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to using every tool at our disposal to target and disrupt the cartels peddling deadly fentanyl on our streets. If La Linea continues to directly contribute to the proliferation of deadly fentanyl throughout our communities, Treasury will continue to use every (tool) in our arsenal to go after their criminal activity," Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.
"The United States, in close coordination with our Mexican partners, remains committed to doing everything we can to hold these groups to account and to disrupt their ability to profit from and ultimately operate these criminal schemes."
