The United States Sanctions 13 Timeshare Companies in Puerto Vallarta for Their Ties to the Jalisco Cartel

A lost paradise. That’s how the Treasury Department described the popular tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday, denouncing it as a strategic stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). It is the location of 13 timeshare companies that have now been sanctioned by Washington, which links them to the powerful criminal organization. The United States has also imposed sanctions on four Mexican citizens, accusing them of fraud and fuel theft. “We are going after terrorist drug cartels, like the CJNG, that are flooding our country with fentanyl,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The new sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s intense offensive against Mexican cartels, which has generated friction with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration.

“Under President Trump’s direction, we will continue our efforts to fully eradicate the cartels’ ability to generate revenue, including their efforts to prey on older Americans through timeshare fraud,” Bessent said.

The sanctions are being imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which links the four Mexicans and 13 companies to a fraud scheme within the timeshare rental system, which, the agency said in a statement, is “led by the CJNG.

These individuals and companies are based in or around Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination that also serves as a strategic stronghold for the CJNG. The CJNG, a brutally violent cartel, is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and increasingly supplements its drug trafficking revenue with alternative sources of income, such as timeshare fraud and fuel theft.”

Washington’s penalty targets Ibarra’s corporate network, comprised of 13 companies, five of which are linked to the vacation rental system known as timeshare, in which several people share the use of a property, a travel agency, and three other companies allegedly involved in real estate activities.