Bangladesh, Sept. 19 -- The United States has taken another step in its ongoing campaign to disrupt the operations of Mexicos most notorious criminal organizations, announcing sweeping sanctions against the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. The US Treasury Department revealed that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated the cartels armed leader, Juan Jose Ponce Felix-known by his alias “El Ruso”-alongside five other individuals and 15 companies allegedly tied to the groups criminal empire in Baja California.

The move represents the latest in a series of US efforts to crack down on the powerful transnational drug cartels that have devastated communities on both sides of the border with their trafficki...