Tag: sanctions

DOJ Unveils Charges Against Haitian Gang Leader ‘Barbecue’ Over Sanction Violations

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Aug. 12 that it will charge Haitian gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier with conspiracy for his role in a scheme to transfer money illegally from the United States.

“Cherizier and a U.S. associate sought to raise funds in the United States to bankroll Cherizier’s violent criminal enterprise, which is driving a security crisis in Haiti,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement.

Cherizier was sanctioned in 2020 by the United States using the Magnitsky Act, which allows the president to impose sanctions for human rights abuses, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

His indictment under the Magnitsky Act is the first of its kind in the history of the DOJ, she said.

The State Department is offering up to $5 million for the capture of Cherizier, who is nicknamed “Barbecue” because he is accused of notorious human rights abuses—including a 2018 massacre in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Saline, in which the bodies of victims were burned, cut into pieces, and fed to pigs and dogs.

Cherizier denies the charges, and told the Associated Press in 2019 that the nickname comes from his childhood, when his  mother was a street vendor who sold fried chicken.

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Report: European Union to Sanction Israel Next Week Over Gaza War

The European Union is planning to sanction Israel next week over the Gaza conflict.

The European elitists found violations of human rights obligations by Israel in Gaza.

Israel has been at war with Hamas since the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The terror group slaughtered families in their homes, targeted a rave party with hundreds of young adults, gunned down the young party-goers, and kidnapped hundreds of Jews on their way back to Gaza.

Israel retaliated with the promise to destroy Hamas in Gaza. The international community believes Israel has committed human rights violations in the process.

Now, EU officials are finalizing plans to sanction Israel this coming week.

Via Reuters.

However, deep divisions among member states suggest that only a few of the proposed measures—if any—are likely to be implemented.

According to an internal EU report on its trade agreement with Israel, seen by Euractiv last month, the bloc found “indications of violations” of human rights obligations.

In response, the European External Action Service (EEAS) is drafting a document outlining possible measures. EU ambassadors are expected to review it on July 10.

In 2024 the International Criminal Court called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza War.

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Treasury Sanctions 3 Mexican Financial Institutions For Aiding Cartels In Fentanyl Trade; Sheinbaum Denies

Mexican President Sheinbaum has commented on the sanctions, denying any fraud and claiming the Mexican banking system is ‘sound’:

  • *SHEINBAUM: NO EVIDENCE OF MONEY LAUNDERING IN MEXICAN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM SAYS MEXICO ONLY FOUND ADMINISTRATIVE FLAWS IN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICO ASKED US TREASURY MONEY LAUNDERING EVIDENCE
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM SOUND, ACCUSED FIRMS SMALL
  • *MEXICO TRANSFERS TO CHINA COS ‘NOT MONEY LAUNDERING’: SHEINBAUM

Just a coincidence?

As Naveen Athrappully detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) sanctioned three financial institutions based in Mexico for allegedly laundering money for cartels involved in the illegal trade of fentanyl, the Treasury said in a June 25 statement. The institutions are CIBanco S.A., Intercam Banco S.A., and Vector Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V.

CIBanco and Intercam are commercial banks with assets worth more than $7 billion and $4 billion, respectively. Vector is a brokerage company managing almost $11 billion in assets.

FinCEN has determined that the entities launder money in connection with illicit opioid trafficking, and have “collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” the statement said.

CIBanco facilitated illicit opioid trafficking by Mexican cartels such as Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Beltran-Leyva Cartel, and Gulf Cartel. Intercam was linked to CJNG, and Vector with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, said the statement.

FinCEN said that between 2021 and 2024, CIBanco processed more than $2.1 million in payments from Mexico-based companies to entities in China that shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico. Intercam processed over $1.5 million during the same period.

As for Vector, the institution processed more than $1 million between 2018 and 2023.

The sanctions prohibit financial institutions in the United States from engaging in the transmission of funds from or to CIBanco, Intercam, or Vector. The prohibition also applies to any account or convertible virtual currency address administered by the three institutions.

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Starve the people, miss the point: The cruel logic of sanctions

Sanctions have become a preferred instrument in international diplomacy applied either to avoid war or when war is politically unpalatable. In theory, sanctions are meant to pressure countries into changing their political course or forcing them into compliance with demands, usually by Western powers, over certain issues of dispute. According to a 2023 UN report, the US, UK, EU and Canada are “prolific” users of sanctions, including banking sanctions that affect the entire population of a targeted country.

Yet sanctions – especially those aimed at entire economies – have repeatedly failed to force political change. Instead, they often cause devastating consequences for civilians while leaving political elites unscathed. They simply morph into a collective punishment against an entire population.

History is replete with examples when sanctions have punished populations far more than they have pressured governments. From Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya, Iran and North Korea, sanctions raise a fundamental question: how does the UN, a body founded to promote peace and human dignity, justify the use of tools that so often inflict collective suffering? The preamble to the UN Charter says the UN is “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.” At the same time, Article 41 of the same document gives the UN Security Council (UNSC) full power to impose sanctions including the “interruption” of communications such as the postal service.

Zealous supporters of sanctions, quite deceptively, came up with a term to minimize their devastating human cost. They describe them as “smart” or “targeted,” meaning they only target the political class and elites while minimally affecting the wider population. However, this is not the case in reality. Sanctions, both smart and otherwise, include assets freeze, travel bans, economic boycotts, diplomatic isolations and threats with penalizing measures.

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Iran Offers More Nuclear Transparency In Exchange For Lifting Sanctions

Iran says that ready to make its nuclear program more transparent at a moment it is preparing to send representatives for a third round of talks with the United States, set for April 26.

Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said Tuesday that Tehran in return for this greater transparency wants US-led sanctions lifted.

“We will try to create more transparency and more trust [in the nuclear program] in exchange for lifting sanctions. In other words, in exchange for lifting sanctions — I emphasize, in a way that is effective and has a [positive] effect on people’s lives — Iran is ready to create more trust in its nuclear program and more transparency,” Mohajerani told reporters.

Mohajerani made clear that Tehran is ready to reach “good agreement” with the United States on nuclear issue. “We are confident that reaching a good agreement in a short time while respecting our national interests is realistic,” she said, calling the prior two rounds “good” amid a “constructive” atmosphere.

The day prior to these optimistic remarks, Iran’s Foreign Ministry warned that Israel was seeking to “undermine” the ongoing nuclear talks with Washington, amid reports in Israeli media that leaders are mulling a ‘limited’ attack on the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that a “kind of coalition is forming… to undermine and disrupt the diplomatic process” and that the “Zionist regime is at the center of this effort.”

Alluding to reports from last week of an internal US administration split on Iran, Baghaei further warned that hawks in the US are also involved in the effort to sabotage the talks. “Alongside it are a series of warmongering currents in the United States and figures from different factions,” he said.

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Trump extends Russia sanctions for 12 months

President Donald Trump has prolonged US sanctions on Russia for another year, based on the supposition that Moscow still poses a serious threat to the country’s national security.

Washington placed punitive restrictions on Russia after it absorbed Crimea following a referendum held in 2014, and later over Moscow’s alleged meddling in American elections. The sanctions were drastically expanded following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

The latest extension approved by Trump and dated April 10, 2025, has been posted to the Federal Register’s website, announcing the “Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation.”

It refers primarily to Executive Order 14024 signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2021 in response to an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the United States” presumed to be posed by Russia.

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Trump threatens tariffs and sanctions on Mexico for ‘stealing’ water from Texas farmers

President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs, and possibly sanctions against Mexico, if it continues to rob South Texas farmers of Rio Grande water promised under a decades-old treaty.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump proclaimed that Mexico owes Texas 1.3 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, though Mexico was violating their obligation.

“This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly,” the president wrote. “Last year, the only Sugar Mill in Texas CLOSED, because Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas Farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed, but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help the Farmers. THAT ENDS NOW!”

Trump continued, saying he will make sure Mexico does not violate treaties with the U.S. and hurt farmers in Texas.

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US strikes hard against the Sinaloa Cartel: Sanctions six individuals and seven entities, blocking its financial network.

The US Treasury Department delivered a devastating blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, sanctioning six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering network, as announced by Secretary Scott Bessent.

These sanctions, aimed at dismantling the cartel’s financial operations, target a network of front companies and shell corporations operating along the US-Mexico border, using currency exchange businesses and bulk cash transfers.

The Sinaloa Cartel, designated as a foreign terrorist organization under the Trump administration, is responsible for trafficking massive amounts of fentanyl into the US, a poison that has killed thousands of citizens and destroyed families.

Bessent stated that laundered money is the “lifeblood” of this “narco-terrorist enterprise,” vowing to use every available tool to punish those who support these criminals.

This move adds to Trump’s pressure on cartels, who weeks ago classified Sinaloa and seven other Hispanic America criminal groups as terrorist organizations, although analysts doubt this will enable direct military action in Mexico.

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 Trump Signs Order Sanctioning The Hague’s ICC Over Treatment Of Israel

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the Hague-based court targeted Israeli and American officials and their allies, according to a White House official.

The administration official cited that the order will “implement financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies.”

The court has had a long-running investigation against the US over alleged troop war crimes committed in Afghanistan. During the first Trump administration, initial retaliatory sanctions were imposed on the ICC in 2020.

And more recently the ICC has issued an arrest warrant last year for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who just visited the White House and met with Trump this week.

The new executive order is clearly timed on the immediate heels of the Trump meeting with Netanyahu, who is unable to travel to many European states and other countries for fear of arrest.

The Trump-signed order states that “The ICC was designed to be a court of last resort” and that “Both the United States and Israel maintain robust judiciary systems and should never be subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC.”

Biden had actually reversed Trump’s 2020 sanctions in order to back ICC investigations into Russian war crimes in Ukraine; however, Trump reversed Biden’s ending of the sanctions on his first day back in office.

Washington has had a shaky relationship with the ICC going back to the Bush years. Republicans railed against the idea that top US officials could be tried.

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Treasury Targets Iran’s Oil Network In New Sanctions As Trump Stuns By Talking Deal

President Donald Trump has been notoriously hawkish on Iran, as have some of his top national security officials, which is why it was surprising and refreshing for his rhetoric to take a different track in Wednesday statements. Responding to reports that the US and Israel are preparing scenarios to attack Iran and its nuclear sites, Trump stated Wednesday that these reports are “greatly exaggerated” and said that making a deal would be preferable instead.

“I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!” Trump added.

During his first administration, Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, which had been implemented during the Obama administration, and involved the other P5+1 countries of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union.

He also dropped a surprise bombshell upon signing the new executive order to reimpose “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic, though it’s been woefully underreported in the media: 

“There are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Still, Trump claimed when he signed it that he was “unhappy” to do it – perhaps revealing it as leverage and part of his big stick approach which can induce a better deal down the road.

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