U.S. charges sibling leaders of ruthless Mexico cartel, offers $8 million reward for information leading to their capture

Federal authorities said Tuesday that they have indicted the top two leaders of a Mexican drug cartel and are offering up to $8 million rewards for information leading to their capture and conviction.

Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, are accused of participating in a conspiracy to manufacture cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl and importing and distributing the drugs in the United States, authorities said during a news conference in Atlanta. The newly unsealed three-count indictment was returned by a grand jury in September.

The two brothers are the leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a Mexican cartel that was formally designated by the U.S. government in February as a “foreign terrorist organization,” authorities said.

“If you contribute to the death of Americans by peddling poison into our communities, we will work relentlessly to find you and bring you to justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

The State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and up to $3 million for information about Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, who also goes by the name “The Strawberry.” Both men are believed to be in Mexico, officials said.

Separately the U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions Wednesday against the two men and well as two other alleged leaders of the cartel, which the U.S. designates as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

In addition to drug trafficking, the Familia Michoacana cartel has also engaged in extortions, kidnappings and murders, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Last year, a Mexican human rights organization reported that a community in the southern state of Guerrero was attacked by drones and gunmen allegedly from La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. At least six people were killed and 13 others injured, the state prosecutor’s office said.

In 2023, the cartel is suspected of leaving a severed human leg found hanging from a pedestrian bridge just west of Mexico City.  Officials said the trunk of the body was left on the street below, near the city’s center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel.

The cartel “has utilized drones to drop bombs on its rivals, with utter disregard for Mexico’s civilian population.,” the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday. “They also terrorize local communities through kidnappings, killings, and extortion.”

In 2022, a man identifying himself as one of the cartel’s leaders posted a video on social media claiming that an attack that killed 20 people was in fact aimed at him.