A Mexican national newly designated by the United States government as a narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Designation Act is a major player in a cartel responsible for much of the fentanyl and other drugs that make it onto Southland streets, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division.
Abouzaid El Bayeh, who remains a fugitive. allegedly played a high-level role in facilitating drug shipments and money laundering for the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a violent Mexican drug trafficking organization that “is responsible for the majority of the fentanyl, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs that flood Los Angeles,” said Bill Bodner, the DEA L.A. Field Division’s special agent in charge.
“Our unwavering mission to disrupt CJNG’s operations was reflected by today’s actions against those that aid and support this global criminal enterprise,” he said.
In June, Mexican authorities blocked El Bayeh’s Mexican bank accounts due to his alleged relationship with CJNG. Previously, in October 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice identified El Bayeh as being linked to CJNG and unsealed a federal drug trafficking indictment filed against him in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that was investigated by the DEA in Los Angeles.
El Bayeh was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, knowing and intending that it will be imported into the U.S. The indictment alleges that his activities began around 2012.
Los Angeles remains one of the major shipping points for Mexican drug cartels fueling a rise in fentanyl across the United States, while California leads the nation in methamphetamine conversion labs, according to a federal drug study released Tuesday.
The DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment — the agency’s annual publication that outlines threats posed by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs — says that California had more fentanyl seized than any other state in 2019, and that California had the second-greatest amount of cocaine seized in 2019.
Nationally, according to the report, the opioid threat remains at epidemic levels, while the stimulant threat, including methamphetamine and cocaine, is worsening both in volume and reach.