Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez (Hernandez Perez), a key leader of the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization (HSO), a Guatemala-based Transnational Criminal Organization responsible for the smuggling of thousands of illegal aliens from Guatemala, through Mexico, and into the United States. Additionally, Hernandez Perez has coordinated her illegal activity with members of the violent U.S.-sanctioned drug trafficking organization, La Linea, which among other heinous acts is responsible for the November 2019 murders of nine American citizens, including six children, in the Mexican state of Sonora.
On July 17, 2024, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico returned an indictment against Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez (Hernandez Perez) and other members of the Lopez HSO for their role in a conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. Hernandez Perez has coordinated with La Linea, a U.S.-sanctioned drug trafficking organization, to bring illegal aliens into the United States. Members of the Lopez HSO, including Hernandez Perez, have exploited the U.S. financial system with their criminal activity, utilizing U.S. banks to receive and issue payments as part of their human smuggling operations. The Lopez HSO is believed to have generated between $104 million and $416 million in illicit proceeds from their human smuggling activities between September 2020 and 2023, charging smuggled persons between $13,000 to $16,000 each. Today, OFAC is sanctioning Hernandez Perez pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13581, as amended, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Lopez HSO. Today’s action against the Lopez HSO was conducted in close coordination with the HSI-El Paso Field Office, the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, the HSI Human Smuggling Unit, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force program. This action follows a recent FinCEN Southwest Border Global Targeting Order, furthering Treasury’s efforts to combat drug cartels and other criminal groups at the southern border.
Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 590;
Executive Order 13581 of July 24, 2011 Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations
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Official Information
On January 12, 2012, OFAC issued the Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 590 (77 FR 1864, January 12, 2012) (the “Regulations”), to implement Executive Order (E.O.) 13581 of July 24, 2011, “Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations” (76 FR 44757, July 27, 2011), pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13581. The Regulations were initially issued in abbreviated form for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC amended the Regulations on July 23, 2019 (84 FR 35307, July 23, 2019) to implement E.O. 13863 of March 15, 2019, “Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Transnational Criminal Organizations” (84 FR 10255, March 19, 2019), which amended E.O. 13581. OFAC is amending and reissuing the Regulations as a more comprehensive set of regulations that includes additional interpretive guidance and definitions, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public. Due to the number of regulatory sections being updated or added, OFAC is reissuing the Regulations in their entirety.
E.O. 13581 On July 24, 2011, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), issued E.O. 13581. In E.O. 13581, the President found that the activities of significant transnational criminal organizations, such as those listed in the Annex to E.O. 13581, have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems. The President further found that such organizations are becoming increasingly sophisticated and dangerous to the United States; they are increasingly entrenched in the operations of foreign governments and the international financial system, thereby weakening democratic institutions, degrading the rule of law, and undermining economic markets. The President stated these organizations facilitate and aggravate violent civil conflicts and increasingly facilitate the activities of other dangerous persons. The President determined that the activities of significant transnational criminal organizations constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
