Treasury Sanctions Cartel-Linked Racetrack
The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four individuals and 11 entities on October 13 connected to Cartel del Noreste, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, for using quarter-horse racing alongside construction, trucking and oil and gas businesses to launder drug-trafficking proceeds.
According to Treasury's own announcement, Secretary Scott Bessent said the action exposes the cartel's exploitation of horse racing to finance its operations and called it the Treasury's most significant move to date against the group's financial infrastructure.
The designations were made under executive orders targeting international drug trafficking and terrorism financing, and mark OFAC's fourth and largest action against Cartel del Noreste networks during the current administration.
A Long History Of Laundering Through US Racehorses
Treasury's notice traces the cartel's use of American quarter-horse racing back more than a decade: between 2008 and 2012, cartel figures known as Z-40 and Z-42 bought and sold racehorses with drug money, training and racing them in the United States as a way to move illicit cash through a legitimate sport.
OFAC's latest action follows an earlier April 2026 designation that named Casino Centenario, a casino a few miles from the US border, as another vehicle in the cartel's money-laundering network.
The sanctions block the designated individuals and entities from the US financial system and bar Americans from doing business with them.
For the racing and sportsbook industry, the action is a reminder that regulators continue to treat horse racing's cash-heavy ownership and purse structures as an exposure point for cross-border money laundering, a concern GDC has also tracked in the wider gambling oversight story in Mexico's gambling regulation debate.
