March 2 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury Department has designated eight companies it alleges participated in a timeshare fraud scheme on behalf of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion.
“CJNG is a violent Mexico-based organization that traffics a significant proportion of the illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs that enter the United States,” the Treasury Department said in a press release Thursday.
The Treasury Department alleges that companies linked to the cartel have made unsolicited offers to buy timeshares off of victims. When victims accepted offers, the scammers requested fictitious fees and taxes under the pretense that they will facilitate the sale and be reimbursed after closing.
Using these methods, the scammers would extract money before their victims could realize the offers were fraudulent.
“In tourist destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, CJNG has become heavily engaged in timeshare fraud, which often targets U.S. citizens,” said Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “This crime, which can defraud victims of their life savings, results in another significant revenue stream for the cartel and strengthens its overall criminal enterprise.”
The eight companies being designated “for being owned, controlled, or directly by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a person sanctioned,” are: Corporativo Title I, Corporativo TS Business Inc, TS Business Corporativo, Servicios Administrativos Fordtwoo, Integracion Badeva, JM Providers Office, Promotora Vallarta One, and Recservi.
In February, the Treasury Department sanctioned Jesus Cisneros Hernandez, an alleged arms dealer with connections to the CJNG.
In February, the Treasury Department also sanctioned two Mexican businessmen as well as four Sinaloa Cartel members for alleged connections to fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking.