Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), working with U.S. agencies, conducted a significant enforcement operation on June 23, 2023, to dismantle a prolific transnational drug trafficking organization operating in Nogales, Sonora, along the U.S.–Mexico border.
According to the Department of Justice, seven U.S.-based coordinators and operators with alleged ties to the same drug-trafficking organization have been arrested and indicted in the United States.
Gerardo Bernal-Mazon, 29, Ashley Bernal, 31, Jessica Yesenia Valenzuela, 32, and Delyanira Lovio, 29, all of Nogales, Arizona, Juan Murillo, 48, of Rio Rico, Arizona, and Lilian Sugey Siegfried, 38, of Tucson, Arizona, were indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking charges on February 2, 2023. George Armenta-Vasquez, 45, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, was indicted by a federal grand jury on January 25, 2023.
The operation also resulted in the seizure of 120,000 fentanyl pills, 15 pounds of methamphetamine, 17 pounds of heroin, 15 pounds of cocaine, 3 assault rifles, one 9mm handgun, and a vehicle.