The U.S. Treasury Department issued new sanctions after figuring out who is behind illegal red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico: Mexican drug cartels. The new sanctions target the Gulf Cartel, which operates in cities just across the border from the southern coast of Texas.
Their hub is located at Playa Bagdad in the city of Matamoros, Mexico, less than 10 miles from the border with the United States.
According to the Treasury, the cartel uses boats for drug and human smuggling. Each year, they catch millions of dollars worth of red snapper, a valuable but vulnerable species of fish, as their boats travel through the Gulf.
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U.S. fishermen face strict limits on fishing for red snapper, but cartels have taken the fish and sold them at markets in Mexico’s border towns. Some fish are sent to the U.S. for resale.
The U.S. has taken actions against Mexico before in efforts to prevent overfishing, including preventing Mexican fishing boats from entering U.S. ports along the Gulf Coast.
This is also the latest in a string of cartel-related sanctions. The Treasury has issued sanctions against more than 20 people and over a dozen companies tied to Mexican cartel operations in the last six months.
