Mexican Leader of Cartel-Connected Human Smuggling Group Blacklisted by U.S. Treasury

The U.S. Treasury Department placed the leader of a cartel-connected human smuggling organization in its blacklist — a move that looks to freeze all of their assets and forbids any U.S. citizen from doing business with them.

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez was the leader in Mexico of a human smuggling operation that moved migrants from Guatemala through Mexico and into the United States. The U.S. government named the group the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization. The group began operations in 2017 and moved thousands of migrants into the United States. The available information points to the group making between $104 million and $416 million between 2020 and 2023. The group would charge migrants between $13,000 to $16,000 to move migrants illegally across the border.

In July 2024, the Treasury Department placed its founding leader Ronaldo Galindo Lopez Escobar, and his family on its blacklist. The move this week targeted the group’s Mexico-based leader.

According to U.S. authorities, Sandivel Hernandez worked from Mexico with La Linea faction of the Juarez Cartel to move migrants into New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In its statement, the Treasury Department claimed the Lopez group would purchase fraudulent Mexican documents and would also pay cartel fees to La Linea as part of their operations.

As Breitbart Texas reported, La Linea is the same drug cartel blamed for the November 2019 mass killing of nine U.S. citizens, including six children and three women, in the state of Sonora. The gunmen targeted and killed the group as they were traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. While the case drew widespread international condemnation, Mexico’s government has been slow to act.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.