On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting three individuals and two casinos, citing their suspected connections to Mexico’s Northeast Cartel. This group was labeled as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration last year.

The U.S. has been ramping up efforts against the Northeast Cartel, a successor of the once-dominant Zetas. The cartel is notorious for its involvement in trafficking arms, narcotics, and humans, along with its violent tactics and extortion schemes. Its stronghold is in Nuevo Laredo, a key commercial gateway on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Among those penalized is Casino Centenario, a gambling establishment located in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. U.S. authorities allege it doubles as a storage site for drugs and a front for laundering money through its gaming operations.

Diamante Casino, based in the northern city of Tampico, Tamaulipas, also faced sanctions. The casino is noted for operating a digital betting platform.

The sanctions extended to key collaborators, including Eduardo Javier Islas Valdez, alleged to be the “gatekeeper” for the cartel’s human trafficking routes into Texas, and lawyer Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez, who is accused of offering illicit assistance.

Additionally, activist Jesús Reymundo Ramos was named, with the Treasury Department accusing him of being a paid operative tasked with propagating the cartel’s disinformation under the pretense of championing human rights.

The U.S. sanctions block assets the targeted people have in the United States and prohibit people from doing business with them in the U.S.

Ramos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In March 2023, Ramos alleged that the Mexican Army and government orchestrated accusations linking him to the Northeast Cartel, which he denied. An independent investigation later confirmed that his phone had been compromised by Pegasus spyware in 2020.

According to U.S. authorities, Penilla Rodríguez assisted one of the leaders of Los Zetas — Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, alias Z-40 — who was extradited to the U.S. last year along with his brother and the organization’s ringleader, Omar Treviño Morales, and 27 other people.

Two individuals and the popular Mexican rapper Ricardo Hernández Medrano — known as El Makabelico, or Comando Exclusivo — were sanctioned in August for alleged ties to the criminal organization.