Treasury Sanctions 21 People and 25 Companies It Ties to Sinaloa Cartel's 'Los Mayos,' Including Baja California Governor's Ex-Husband

A Governor's Divorce Papers, a Cartel List, and a Word That Means Different Things in Two Countries

Carlos Alberto Torres Torres is divorced. That fact, stated plainly by his ex-wife, is now at the center of a sanctions fight between Washington and Mexico City. His former spouse is Marina del Pilar Ávila, the governor of Baja California. On Sept. 29, 2026, the U.S. Treasury Department put his name on a list of 21 people and 25 companies it says are tied to the Sinaloa Cartel's "Los Mayos" faction^[1][8].

Torres denies any link to organized crime^[6][18]. The governor, who is not on the list, says she's been dealing with this kind of accusation for years. "I have resisted five years of slander," she said, adding that she won't speak on her ex-husband's behalf^[7]. Mexico's government froze his accounts the same day the U.S. announced the sanctions. But it also said, in the same breath, that a U.S. blacklist is not proof of a crime^[4][5]. Both of those things are true at once, and that's the story.

What a Blacklist Actually Does

The sanctions came from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC. OFAC doesn't file criminal charges. It runs a financial blacklist: once someone's name is on it, any money they have in the U.S. financial system gets frozen, and Americans are generally barred from doing business with them^[1].

The real power of an OFAC listing comes from something bigger than the U.S. itself. Banks around the world tend to cut off sanctioned people too, even outside America, because they're afraid of U.S. penalties if they don't. So Washington can impose real financial pain on someone without ever taking them to trial, and without needing Mexico's permission^[1][5].

That's exactly what happened here. The list names Ismael Zambada Sicairos, known as "Mayito Flaco," who Treasury calls the current leader of Los Mayos^[1][9]. He's the son of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, taken into U.S. custody in 2024; the younger Zambada was born in Anaheim, California, and holds both U.S. and Mexican citizenship^[2]. The list also names alleged "plaza bosses" who control smuggling routes through Tijuana and Mexicali, plus money launderers and shell businesses^[1]. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the message is that no "cartel kingpin, corrupt Mexican government official, or financial facilitator is beyond the reach of Treasury's authorities^[1][13]."

Why Mexico Froze the Money but Rejected the Verdict

Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit, the UIF, moved fast. It added all 46 names to its own blocked-persons list the same day, calling it a preventive administrative measure^[5]. On paper, that looks like full cooperation with Washington.

But President Claudia Sheinbaum drew a sharp line right after. She said Torres faces no criminal complaint in Mexico, and that the UIF's own review found only "irregularities," not evidence of a crime^[4]. Her argument is that a U.S. accusation isn't a Mexican legal finding. Each case, she says, has to be proven under Mexican law with evidence that holds up in a Mexican court^[4][17].

This isn't a new fight for her. In 2025, her government made nearly the identical argument about a Morena party lawmaker the U.S. had sanctioned, saying the UIF didn't have enough evidence to back the American claims^[19]. The pattern suggests a government trying to walk a line: stay cooperative enough to keep its relationship with Washington stable, without appearing to hand over its own political figures just because the U.S. said so^[12].

The Border Routes Underneath the Politics

Strip away the individual names and there's a simpler reason this keeps happening. Tijuana and Mexicali sit right on two of the most valuable smuggling corridors into the United States. Treasury says Los Mayos runs those routes through local plaza bosses, and that corrupt officials let the operation run "with impunity^[1]."

Whoever controls those crossings controls a lot of money. That's the pressure sitting underneath both governments' moves: Washington wants to choke off the cash and the political protection that keeps the routes open, while Mexico has to decide how far it will go in naming its own officials as part of that protection, especially when they belong to the president's own party, Morena^[1][10].

This is also not a first strike. Treasury sanctioned a different Los Mayos network back in September 2025^[15]. The current action is the second round against the same faction in about a year, which suggests this is a sustained campaign rather than a one-off case.

One Allegation, Several Audiences

How this story got covered depended heavily on where the coverage came from. U.S. right-leaning outlets led with the cartel "kingpin" angle and the governor's ex-husband, largely running with Treasury's own framing. Breitbart's headline stated the "connection" between Torres and the cartel as settled fact, without attributing it to Treasury's allegation^[11]. Fox News led with "crackdown" language that put the Trump administration's action front and center^[3].

Mainstream U.S. left-leaning outlets mostly didn't cover the story at all in available searches, leaving public radio and business wires to fill the gap. Bloomberg and Arizona's KJZZ both used careful, attributed language — Bloomberg called the targets "suspects," and KJZZ used "alleged" consistently — while still framing the action as the "latest" in an ongoing series^[8][9].

Mexican outlets like La Jornada and Infobae centered their coverage on Sheinbaum's distinction between a U.S. listing and a Mexican criminal finding, and on the governor's effort to separate herself from the case^[4][6]. Canada's The Bureau went further than most, tying the sanctions to what it describes as an expanding Pentagon military campaign across Latin America, a frame that reads the financial action as one piece of broader U.S. pressure on the region^[10].

What Happens to Torres Now

Torres says the only company Treasury tied to him is a business called Vida Orgánica Tijuana, and he plans to formally ask OFAC to review and remove his listing^[6][18]. That review process exists, but it runs through the same U.S. agency that made the original call, not through a Mexican court.

Meanwhile, no criminal complaint has been filed against him in Mexico, and Sheinbaum's government has made clear it isn't treating the U.S. list as a substitute for one^[4][17]. Where that leaves the 46 people and companies now frozen out of both countries' banking systems, without a conviction and without an agreed standard for what counts as proof, is still an open question on both sides of the border.