The name to look at in OFAC’s new corruption chart is Carlos Alberto Torres Torres.
The former husband of Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda appears alongside his brother, Luis Alfonso, and Pedro Ariel Mendivil García, the former head of public security in Mexicali. The U.S. Treasury Department places them in an alleged protection arrangement around El Ruso, whom it identifies as a senior figure in Mayito Flaco’s faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Photographs of Mayito Flaco published with Treasury’s sanctions announcement. The photograph dates were not provided. Credit: U.S. Department of the Treasury / OFAC.
According to Treasury, Mendivil accepted bribes from El Ruso in exchange for cartel control of the municipal police. The force was allegedly used to help move drugs and carry out cartel enforcement operations. Carlos Torres, the department says, used his political influence to keep government and law enforcement from interfering.
A useful arrangement, if you’re the cartel.
Treasury also says Carlos reportedly received monthly payments from Mendivil. His brother allegedly handled and laundered bribe money through companies and political campaigns. Follow the allegation through: cartel money buys protection, the police help the operation, and bribe money passes through businesses and politics.
That is the machinery Washington is describing behind the guns. If these allegations hold up, the people running the protection scheme were using public institutions to keep a criminal business moving. Shocking.
The September 29 action covers 21 people and 25 companies, including Ismael Zambada Sicairos, known as Mayito Flaco, and his alleged support network. OFAC’s records show 18 new individual listings and three redesignations. The three already sanctioned were Alfonso and René Arzate García, and José Ángel Rivera Zazueta.
Ávila Olmeda is not designated in this action. Treasury’s accusations against her former husband do not establish wrongdoing by her.
Torres denied earlier allegations in a January 28 statement published by Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias and said he would cooperate with authorities. That statement came months before these sanctions.
OFAC’s assessment of alleged corruption and financial support for Los Mayos in Baja California. Credit: U.S. Department of the Treasury / OFAC.
The leadership chart places four men close to Mayito Flaco: Hildegardo Gastelum García, known as Aldo; Jorge Luis Mendoza Uriarte, known as Güero Chompas; his brother Francisco Javier Mendoza Uriarte; and Lorenzo Castillo Maldonado. OFAC identifies them as his inner circle and senior advisers. The Arzate brothers, El Ruso and Rivera Zazueta appear among the plaza bosses and senior leadership.
OFAC’s assessment of the Los Mayos leadership network. The legend distinguishes newly designated, previously designated and redesignated individuals. Credit: U.S. Department of the Treasury / OFAC.
Then there is what Treasury says about Castillo.
The department alleges that he hired hitmen to kill rival cartel members in southern California on Mayito Flaco’s orders. There are no victims’ names, dates or specific court cases in the announcement. It does not tell us whether the alleged hiring led to an attempt or a completed killing.
I want to see the cases behind that allegation. It is too serious to leave sitting in a press release without those details.
The alleged financial network crosses into southern California too. Treasury says Galerias Centro Cambiario, also known as Magic Casa de Cambio, worked with complicit currency exchanges there to collect drug proceeds and move the money back to Mexico.
In Treasury’s account, the American side had people willing to help with the money. Apparently, that part of the business traveled well.
The company list includes Servicios Hoteleros Gastelum, linked by OFAC to Aldo; Mia Centro Cambiario and Rivos Servicios, linked to Rivera Zazueta; and The Woods Bar, linked to Luis Torres. These are OFAC’s ownership and control findings.
Magic Casa de Cambio, identified by Treasury as Galerias Centro Cambiario. Credit: U.S. Department of the Treasury / OFAC.
Rivera Zazueta also appears in the corruption chart with Rafael Buenrostro Martín, a former customs official and legislative adviser. Treasury accuses Buenrostro of providing political favors and influence in exchange for bribes. Separately, it accuses Diosvany Chapotin Villalba of trafficking drugs and laundering proceeds with Rivera Zazueta and other cartel-linked figures.
The same dependence on access runs through the allegations. Someone moves the product. Someone handles the money. Someone makes sure the authorities give them room.
Treasury also describes Mayito Flaco as a dual U.S.-Mexican national born in Anaheim in 1982 who filed a U.S. name change to Fernando Sicairos Aispuro in 2001. There is a problem in its own paperwork: the formal OFAC entry lists Sinaloa as his birthplace and Anaheim as an alternative.
U.S. prosecutors charged him more than a decade ago. A superseding indictment naming him was returned in July 2014 and unsealed in January 2015. Treasury sanctioned Los Mayos and El Ruso in September 2025. These new designations widen the list of people and businesses Washington is targeting around the faction.
What they have cost the network remains unknown.
The sanctions require covered property in the United States, or held or controlled by U.S. persons, to be blocked. Ownership stays with the blocked person while transactions are restricted. The announcement gives no dollar total for assets blocked and no measured evidence of disruption.
What stands out to me is the alleged protection. A police director. A political operator. Bribe money moving through companies and campaigns. Each has a place in the arrangement Treasury describes.
Washington has put their names on a chart. People in Mexicali are left with the question behind it: who was the police force working for?
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