Mexico: fentanyl trafficker for whom US offered $4 million arrested

Mexican authorities arrested a man for whom the United States was offering a $4 million reward for alleged fentanyl trafficking, the government announced Thursday.

The capture of Leobardo Garcia adds to a series of blows to drug trafficking amid pressures from President Donald Trump for Mexico to stop smuggling the drug, with measures such as the imposition of high tariffs.

Combined forces from the Army, Navy, National Guard and Attorney General's Office arrested Garcia in Mexico City, accused of allegedly working for the Sinaloa Cartel, according to a statement from the Security Secretariat.

The agents surprised the alleged trafficker in a residential sector in the south of the Mexican capital after tracking him, the report added.

According to the State Department, Garcia's alleged involvement in fentanyl trafficking was uncovered in August 2022, when he negotiated the shipment of 10 kilos of the opiate that ended up in California.

Because of this, on April 4, 2023, a federal jury in New York indicted Garcia and other suspects on charges of conspiracy to import fentanyl and possession of machine guns and explosives.

Garcia along with his brother, who was found dead in August 2024, were associates of Chapo Guzman and Ismael Zambada Gracia.

Mexico significantly increased fentanyl seizures and also increased surveillance of the border with the United States to stop the passage of undocumented migrants into that country. The two demands made by Trump in the framework of his tariff war against a significant number of countries.