US charges leaders of 'brutal Mexican cartel,' offers $8M reward for brothers' capture

The U.S. is offering an $8 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of two brothers accused of running a "brutal Mexican cartel" that has been "poisoning Americans" with fentanyl and other illicit drugs trafficked across the border. 

Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, the co-leaders of the La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), were charged by a federal grand jury in Georgia on Tuesday, with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl knowing those controlled substances would be imported into the United States, among other counts, according to the Justice Department. Both fugitives are believed to be in Mexico. 

"President Trump has promised to crack down on the flow of deadly drugs into our country," F. Cartwright Weiland, a Senior Bureau Official in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said in a statement.  

"Working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of State is delivering on that promise by offering rewards totaling up to $8 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the Hurtado brothers," he added. 

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The DEA, according to the State Department, estimates that LNFM "is responsible for the transportation, importation, and distribution of over 36 metric tons of methamphetamine, 12 metric tons of Mexican heroin, and 12 metric tons of cocaine per year from Mexico into the United States." 

The cartel was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department on Feb. 20. 

"LNFM is a drug trafficking organization primarily based in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacan that has trafficked fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine to the United States, and that has laundered the proceeds of these illicit drugs through the U.S. financial system," the Treasury Department said. 

"In addition to poisoning Americans, the group has engaged in acts of terror and violence within Mexico. For instance, LNFM has utilized drones to drop bombs on its rivals, with utter disregard for Mexico’s civilian population. They also terrorize local communities through kidnappings, killings, and extortion," it continued. 

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A reward of up to $5 million is being offered by the State Department for the capture of Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, while a $3 million figure is being offered for the detainment of Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga. 

The indictments against the brothers were returned in September 2024 and were recently unsealed, according to the Justice Department. 

"In addition... the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions against Johnny and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga and their siblings, LNFM members Ubaldo Hurtado Olascoaga and Adita Hurtado Olascoaga," the agency also said. 

"The indictment of senior leaders of this brutal Mexican cartel and subsequent OFAC sanctions makes one thing clear, we are coming after these criminal networks and utilizing every weapon in our arsenal," said Special Agent in Charge Steven N. Schrank of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama.