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More than $10 million in cryptocurrency belonging to the Sinaloa cartel has been seized in Florida as part of nationwide drug raids since the onset of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Justice Department announced this week.
Officials said since Jan. 20, the Drug Enforcement Administration has “seized approximately 44 million fentanyl pills, 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder, nearly 65,000 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 201,500 pounds of cocaine, and made over 2,105 fentanyl-related arrests.”
“In Miami, Florida, DEA in coordination with its FBI partners, seized over $10 million dollars in cryptocurrency, directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel,” the Justice Department said, noting that the bust happened in the last few weeks.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the DEA agents “are doing historic work to keep our communities safe from deadly drugs like fentanyl and dismantle the cartels selling them.”
POLICE INVESTIGATE ‘SUSPICIOUS DISAPPEARANCE’ OF ELDERLY MAN LINKED TO CRYPTOCURRENCY FORTUNE
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent takes part in a search warrant at a Healthplus Pharmacy for evidence related to an opioid pill mill, in Miramar, Florida, in August 2022. Recent DEA operations in Miami resulted in the seizure of $10 million in cryptocurrency linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. (Reuters/Marco Bello)
“DEA is hitting the cartels where it hurts — with arrests, with seizures, and with relentless pressure,” added DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy in a statement. “From meth labs in California to fentanyl pills disguised as pharmaceuticals seized at our border, these operations are saving American lives every single day.”
“We are not slowing down. We are dismantling these networks piece by piece — and we won’t stop until the last brick of their empire falls,” he also said.
TRUMP CRYPTO CHIEF SAYS WE ARE IN THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ FOR DIGITAL ASSETS
A logo reading “DEA Special Agent” is pictured in the Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in May 2019 in New York City. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)
The Justice Department said that during the raids, methamphetamine was found hidden in a “truckload of cucumbers” and a “refrigerated truck carrying blueberries.”
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of “El Chapo”, right, and a head of the Sinaloa Cartel, recently pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in Chicago. (Getty Images)
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The operations unfolded from coast to coast, including in the states of California, Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.