Wendy Dalaithy Amaral Arevalo, a 45-year-old Mexican national, pleaded guilty on July 28, 2026, to willfully violating U.S. anti-narcotics trafficking sanctions by funneling $504,497.48 in tuition payments to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, despite being barred from operating within the U.S. financial system.
According to court documents, Amaral Arevalo violated the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act—commonly known as the Kingpin Act—by engaging in transactions and real estate-related dealings with IMG Academy, a preparatory school and sports training center attended by her son. She signed contracts with the institution to enroll the minor and arranged for the payment of tuition.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Amaral Arevalo on August 19, 2015, for collaborating with the international drug trafficking activities of Los Cuinis—an organization also under sanctions and closely linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025. That designation prohibited the group from conducting transactions within the U.S. financial system.
Amaral Arevalo is the ex-wife and current partner of Gerardo González Valencia, the leader of Los Cuinis, who was sentenced to life in prison on July 21, 2023, for conspiring to distribute large quantities of cocaine for importation into the United States.
Known by the aliases “Lalo” and “Silverio,” he is the brother of Abigael González Valencia—founder of Los Cuinis, arrested in Mexico in 2015—and of José González Valencia (“La Chepa”), captured in Brazil in 2017. He is also the brother-in-law of CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”) through the latter’s marriage to Rosalinda González Valencia. Following his brother Abigael’s arrest, he assumed leadership of the organization, which is identified as the cartel’s financial arm. According to court documents, between 2003 and April 2016, he spearheaded the shipment of large volumes of cocaine from South America and Mexico into U.S. territory.
His criminal record in the United States began in 1998, when he was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute—an offense for which he received a four-year prison sentence. In January 2001, while serving the final stage of his sentence at a halfway house in Oakland, California, he requested permission to go out and look for work but failed to return, with only six months remaining until his scheduled release. González Valencia moved with his family to Uruguay in late 2011, where he maintained a low profile while leading an expensive lifestyle documented in court records—including hunting safaris in Africa (featuring a photograph of him posing with a downed oryx), attendance at World Cup tournaments, and stays in Europe. He was arrested in Montevideo in late April 2016 as part of Operation Jalisco and at the request of the U.S. government, remaining imprisoned in the South American country for four years until his extradition in May 2020. On December 22, 2022, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.
On February 12, 2026, OFAC announced a $1.72 million settlement with IMG Academy for entering into annual tuition agreements with Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) sanctioned for their ties to a Mexican cartel, as well as for receiving and processing payments stemming from those agreements. Between 2019 and 2025, the institution entered into annual agreements with two individuals on that list and repeatedly processed payments related to their children’s education—conduct that OFAC determined constituted 89 apparent violations of anti-narcotics sanctions programs.
In the first documented case, an alleged leader of a Mexican cartel managed to enroll his son between 2018 and 2023—a period during which the student graduated—paying annual tuition exceeding $98,000. In the second case, another sanctioned individual secured enrollment for his son between 2020 and 2022 at an annual cost of over $100,000; the student left the program in June 2022. OFAC noted that in both instances, the academy billed the sanctioned individuals directly and maintained frequent communication with them regarding payment obligations, refunds, and account credits.
OFAC classified the case as non-egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed, though it identified “reckless disregard” for sanctions obligations due to a lack of controls to verify the identity of payers. Mitigating factors included the academy’s lack of prior sanctions violations over the preceding five years and its implementation of corrective measures: following a change in ownership in June 2023, it hired a new legal director and developed a risk-based compliance program.
IMG Academy, located in the Tampa Bay area, is considered one of the premier private sports academies in the United States. It offers an intensive boarding program with annual tuition ranging from $75,000 to $100,000 and serves more than 1,200 students across disciplines such as tennis, soccer, golf, basketball, and American football. It maintains recruitment offices in countries including Mexico, China, Japan, and South Korea. “Wendy Dalaithy Amaral Arevalo willfully violated U.S. sanctions against drug trafficking by funneling over half a million dollars in drug proceeds as tuition payments through the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, despite being prohibited from conducting transactions within the U.S. financial system,” stated A. Tysen Duva, a Deputy Chief in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division. He added that such legislation aims to prevent foreign drug traffickers, their businesses, and their operatives from using U.S. institutions to receive or transfer illicit funds.
Terrance C. Cole, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official, maintained that the defendant “exploited a school and training center—a place where families trust they are investing in their children’s future—as a vehicle to funnel millions of dollars in drug proceeds for the CJNG, one of the most violent and destabilizing drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere.” He added that the guilty plea exposes the scope of cartel financial networks operating within U.S. territory.
The defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for December 2, 2026.
The case is being investigated by the DEA’s Los Angeles Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit, with support f
Source: Zeta Tijuana
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