The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a five-count indictment on 14 August charging five senior members of Carteles Unidos, or United Cartels, with conspiring to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl, and with firearms offences that carry potential life sentences. The defendants—Juan José Farías Álvarez, Alfonso Fernández Magallón, Luis Enrique Barragán Chávez, Edgar Orozco Cabadas and Nicolás Sierra Santana—remain at large in Mexico. The State Department offered rewards totaling as much as US$26 million for information leading to their capture. In a parallel action, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Carteles Unidos, the rival Los Viagras gang and seven of their alleged leaders, blocking any U.S. assets and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them. Both organisations were earlier designated foreign terrorist groups, and Washington says the proceeds of their extensive methamphetamine operations in Michoacán fund weapons purchases, hired mercenaries and bribes to local officials. Federal prosecutors said the indictment stemmed from a years-long investigation that began with a 2019 car accident in rural Tennessee. Wiretaps, search warrants and a police shoot-out ultimately led agents to clandestine laboratories in western Mexico and the seizure of about 950 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in a tractor-trailer, illustrating how cartel supply chains reach small U.S. communities. The latest charges and sanctions broaden the Trump administration’s campaign against Mexican drug syndicates. Earlier this week Mexico transferred 26 wanted cartel figures to U.S. custody, and Washington signalled it expects further cooperation in bringing the newly indicted suspects before American courts.