Feds arrest hundreds of Sinaloa Cartel members, seize drugs and guns, in nationwide crackdown

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Monday said its officers arrested hundreds of Sinaloa Cartel members and seized hordes of guns and drugs during a week-long operation targeting the powerful Mexican crime syndicate.

Federal officials said they handcuffed 617 people with ties to the cartel in the nationwide crackdown that went from Aug. 25-29.

Agents further confiscated 480 kilograms of fentanyl powder during the mission. The potent synthetic opioid, which is produced and trafficked into the U.S. by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, is largely responsible for the American overdose crisis. 

“These results demonstrate the full weight of DEA’s commitment to protecting the American people,” DEA Administrator Terry Cole said in a statement. “Every kilogram of poison seized, every dollar stripped from the cartels, and every arrest we make represents lives saved and communities defended. DEA will not relent until the Sinaloa Cartel is dismantled from top to bottom.”

Drug-related deaths spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a combination of softer policing on drug users and the Biden administration’s relaxed border policies with Mexico, giving the cartels easier passage into the U.S. 

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show overdose deaths are declining to numbers more in line with pre-pandemic levels. Still, overdoses remain the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 44.

Some local DEA field offices offered breakdowns of how their areas were affected in the sweep.

The federal agency’s New England Field Division said 171 cartel members were arrested in its region. 

That included 33 in New Hampshire, 49 in Massachusetts and 64 in Connecticut. Another 11 were arrested in Maine, 10 in Rhode Island and three in Vermont. 

“They’re our public enemy number one in New England,” Jarod Forget, the Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s New England area, told WFXT in Boston.

The Louisville Field Division, which covers Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, said agents took 51 people linked to the Sinaloa Cartel into custody during its operation.

“This operation shows that the Sinaloa Cartel’s tentacles spread far and deep; no community is spared, big or small, urban or rural,” Special Agent in Charge Jim Scott, who runs the Louisville branch, said in a statement.

The Washington Times contacted the agency’s Washington Field Division, which works throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District, for an update on its local arrests.