News Desk · Terrorist financing

Treasury sanctions Cartel del Noreste network tied to horse racing, construction and fuel firms

OFAC sanctioned four individuals and 11 entities it links to Cartel del Noreste (CDN), including a racetrack, a racing barn, construction and gas companies and a trucking firm in Mexico.

Terrorist financingUS13 Oct 20263 min read

On October 13, 2026, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four individuals and 11 entities it says are connected to Cartel del Noreste (CDN). CDN is a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Treasury says the targets are involved in quarter horse racing, construction, trucking and the oil and gas sector. OFAC describes this as its fourth and largest action against CDN networks during the Trump Administration.

Treasury says CDN evolved from Los Zetas and has a long history of laundering money through the American Quarter Horse racing industry. According to Treasury, Club La Molienda, a racetrack, restaurant and bar on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, is controlled by CDN, and CDN leaders and members buy horses, including many from the US, to race there. Treasury names Gamaliel Garza Garcia, a Mexico-based businessman, as a CDN associate who controls the Cuadra San Dibanh racing barn and a network of construction and fuel companies, and who races horses at tracks in California and New Mexico.

Treasury says the construction company Construcciones y Edificaciones Garza Elias (CEGESA) was used to funnel money to election campaigns of CDN-preferred candidates and won government contracts that it subcontracted to CDN-affiliated individuals. Garza Garcia's son, Gamaliel Garza Elias, was also designated. The other targets include Pablo Cesar Guajardo Alvarez, whom Treasury describes as CDN's plaza boss in Nuevo Laredo, and the trucking company Tamex Leasing / Tamex Logistics, which Treasury says was involved in smuggling narcotics into the US. A Tamex dispatcher, Francisco Javier Inzunza Partida, was also designated.

The designations were made under Executive Order 14059 and Executive Order 13224, as amended. All property of the designated persons in the US or held by US persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC, and entities owned 50 percent or more by blocked persons are also blocked. Treasury warns that foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for the designated persons risk losing access to US correspondent or payable-through accounts. OFAC says it coordinated with Mexico's financial intelligence unit, the UIF.

Why it matters to AML professionals

Sanctions designations like this one create immediate screening obligations: any match must be blocked and reported, including entities owned 50 percent or more by the named parties. Cases that involve horse racing, construction and fuel businesses show how criminal proceeds can be mixed into cash-heavy or contract-based sectors that look legitimate. AML professionals at banks with Mexico or US border exposure should check customers and counterparties against the updated list.

Red flags in this case

Large or frequent payments for racehorses, stud fees or racing entry fees with no clear source of funds
Construction or supply companies that win public contracts and then pay most of the value onward to related subcontractors
Cash deliveries or payments to political campaigns routed through company accounts
Several fuel, gas, construction and trucking companies controlled by the same person and moving funds between one another

If this landed in your queue

Screen customers, beneficial owners and counterparties against the updated SDN list, including name variants and aliases
Apply the 50 percent rule: check whether any customer is owned, directly or indirectly, by designated persons
Review past wires and payments involving the named companies or their owners, and block and report any matching property to OFAC
File a suspicious activity report where activity links to the network but does not trigger a block

Key terms

Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO): A group the US State Department has formally designated as a terrorist organization, which brings criminal and financial penalties for providing it support.
50 percent rule: OFAC's rule that any entity owned 50 percent or more, directly or indirectly, by blocked persons is itself blocked, even if it is not named on the list.
Plaza boss: A cartel member who controls criminal activity in a specific city or territory.

Interview angle

A sanctions list update names a businessman and several of his companies. What do you do beyond screening the names?

Explain that you also check ownership structures under the 50 percent rule, look back at past transactions with the named parties, block and report matching property, and consider a suspicious activity report for related activity that is not a direct match.

Sources

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Every fact in AMLift News Desk stories comes from an official source: a regulator, court, government gazette or the company's own filing.