United States Drug Enforcement Administration

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After a week-long, targeted sweep across Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, the Drug Enforcement Administration, working with our federal, state, and local law enforcement counterparts, arrested 51 individuals with ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.  All of those arrested are facing a wide range of criminal charges related to drug trafficking.

The Sinaloa Cartel poses a significant threat to public safety, public health and national security across the United States,” said Special Agent in Charge Jim Scott, head of DEA’s Louisville Field Division.  “This operation shows that the Sinaloa Cartel’s tentacles spread far and deep; no community is spared, big or small, urban or rural.”

In addition to the arrests, DEA agents and their law enforcement partners seized 133 firearms, nearly nine thousand counterfeit pills and more than $78,000.00 in cash.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the world’s most powerful drug cartels and one of the largest producers and traffickers of Fentanyl and other illicit drugs including methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, to the United States.  As one of the most powerful cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel uses violence to intimidate civilians, government officials, and journalists.  Additionally, the Sinaloa Cartel engages in many other crimes, including money laundering, extortion, theft of petroleum and natural resources, weapons trafficking, human smuggling, prostitution, and illegal wildlife trade.