Category Archives: Terror

Operacion Probirka” — or “Operation Test Tube”

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Primer: 2025 – Russian use of chemical weapons against Ukraine ‘widespread’, Dutch defence minister says

Add in the U.S. State Department report in 2024

***

Posted in full and a big hat tip to Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (in full)

Key Findings
  • Maria Oleinikova and her children run businesses in Spain dedicated to Spanish cuisine, but they are also being investigated for supplying banned chemicals to Russia.
  • The investigation, called “Operation Test Tube,” has named nine suspects, including Oleinikova, her two children, and executives from a Spanish company called Scharlab. No charges have yet been brought in the case.
  • Separately, import data reviewed by reporters shows that a Russian company majority-owned by Oleinikova, Catrosa Reactiv, has received dozens of shipments of sanctioned chemicals from companies under investigation in Spain.
  • While it is not known what then happened to the chemicals, leaked transaction data shows Catrosa Reactiv’s clients include weapons developers, such as the state institute that created the nerve agent Novichok.
  • Customs systems struggle to deal with the EU’s broad sanctions on chemical exports to Russia, experts said, meaning that banned chemicals can easily slip out of the bloc and into Russia.

Operacion Probirka” — or “Operation Test Tube”

Cavina Vinoteca, a slick wine bar in Barcelona’s fashionable Poblenou neighborhood, has drawn rave reviews online since it opened its doors last year.

The restaurant is one of several gastronomic ventures run by the Oleinikova family, led by matriarch Maria, who was born in Russia but is now a Spanish citizen. Together with her son and daughter, she also runs a Spanish company that exports wine, beer, cider and liqueurs to Russia.

But OCCRP and partners have learned that this company did business beyond just beverages— it was also shipping chemicals to Russia in possible violation of European Union sanctions imposed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Last year, Maria and her children Irina and Vyacheslav were arrested in a Spanish police raid dubbed “Operacion Probirka” — or “Operation Test Tube” — in which 13,000 kilograms of chemicals were seized at the Port of Barcelona.

Operation Test Tube was part of a Spanish investigation into the illegal supply of chemicals to Russia, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement at the time, but since then the government has provided almost no details about the case. Although the statement referred to a Russian company that was importing the chemicals, police did not publicly name it or provide details of the shipments.

Credit: Policia Nacional

Spanish authorities during the “Operacion Probirka” investigation

A Spanish police source involved in the investigation said authorities suspect Oleinikova was an “intermediary” who arranged the shipments. (The officer was authorized to speak to the press, but not to be identified by name.)

But drawing on Russian import data, reporters found that Oleinikova doesn’t just operate in Spain — she also majority-owns a Russian chemical company called Catrosa Reactiv that received at least 36 shipments of sanctioned chemicals from Spain between 2022 and 2024— including one that came directly from Complexe Sancu, the Spanish wine-and-beer export company run by Oleinkova and her children.

Most of the other shipments were made by a Spanish company called Scharlab S.L., which is headquartered in Barcelona with subsidiaries in Italy and the Philippines, import data shows. Scharlab is majority-owned by Werner Scharlau, a German living in Spain who was among those arrested in February.

On its website, Catrosa Reactiv — which was founded in 2006 and taken over by Oleinikova’s husband two years later —  says that it “successfully operates in the Russian chemical reagents market” and supplies products to laboratories and raw materials to industry. The Russian company register shows that Oleinikova, who has a background in academic scientific research, became the company’s majority shareholder in 2015 and still holds a controlling stake in the firm.

Credit: Screenshot/catrosa.ru

Catrosa Reactiv’s website.

It is not known how the chemicals imported from Spain to Catrosa Reactiv were ultimately used. However, leaked transaction data obtained by reporters showed Catrosa Reactiv’s clients in Russia since 2022 have included at least six sanctioned entities linked to weapons production, the defense sector, and the Russian military.

They included the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, also known as GosNIIOKhT. It has been sanctioned by the EU and U.S. for its involvement in the development and production of chemical weapons including the toxic nerve agent Novichok, which has been used by Russian operatives for stealth assassinations abroad.

Since 2022, Catrosa Reactiv has also received payments from:

  • The All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, an agency that developed weapons in the Soviet era, including the first Soviet atomic bomb, before shifting toward building and managing Russia’s most advanced supercomputers
  • The Scientific Research Institute of Applied Acoustics, which was sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly “carrying out research and development of military products.” The U.S. also said it had been “involved in the procurement and inventory of chemicals that could be used in the production of chemical weapons agents.”
  • Explosives manufacturer SKTB Technolog, a contractor for the Russian Ministry of Defense
  • The 18th Central Research Institute, known as Military Unit 11135, which is part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service

Reporters did not identify any chemicals specifically associated with chemical weapons in Catrosa Reactiv’s import data. However, Miguel Ángel Sierra, a professor of organic chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid and former member of the scientific advisory board of the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the chemicals it imported from Europe were sanctioned because they had multiple potential uses, including creating explosives.

“These have been banned by the European Union because they are industrial products,” he explained. “For example, there are many processes you can’t carry out, including the preparation of explosives, the preparation of pharmaceuticals, and the preparation of many other things, without having some of these products.”

Spain’s Audiencia Nacional — a court that deals with terrorism and major crimes — confirmed to OCCRP that Oleinikova and her two children are among nine suspects currently under investigation for “smuggling banned substances.” All nine suspects have been released while the investigation continues, and no one has been charged with a crime, the press department for the court said.

Oleinikova declined to comment for this story because the case is still under investigation by the Audiencia Nacional.  

How Reporters Identified Catrosa Reactiv’s Imports

Reporters reviewed extensive Russian import records for Catrosa Reactiv on the ImportGenius commercial database, filtering them to include only shipments received after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to detect possible sanctioned chemicals.

Some of the shipments from Spain included the “HS Codes” – international product identification categories under which genres of exports are grouped for customs.

In some cases, reporters discovered product descriptions for individual chemicals within the import data, but not always.

Where they could find descriptions of individual chemicals, they cross-referenced them with EU sanctions lists, which are updated every four months, to work out which chemicals were illegally being shipped out of Spain despite a ban.

While OCCRP and its partners were able to establish that Catrosa Reactiv had made 36 imports of at least 15 banned products from Spain since 2022, the actual figures may be higher as the commercial database may be incomplete and the product descriptions for some shipments were imprecise.

Russian Firm Imported Sanctioned Chemicals in Dozens of Shipments

Official press releases following the October 2024 raid on the Barcelona port didn’t name the specific chemicals that were confiscated, but police told OCCRP they had seized 13,000 kilograms of the solvent N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which is widely used in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and coating. Investigators also found smaller amounts of other chemicals that could be used in weapons production.

Some shipments of chemicals — including nitric acid and acetone, both used in the manufacture of explosives, and diethylamine, a chemical involved in the manufacturing of the nerve agent VX — had already left Spain for Russia, police said.

In an effort to form a complete picture of the types of chemicals Catrosa Reactive had been importing from the EU, reporters reviewed Russian import records in a commercial database.

Credit: Policia Nacional

Spanish police at the Barcelona port during the seizure of 13,000 kilograms of the solvent N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP).

The 32 shipments Catrosa Reactiv received from Scharlab contained 14 chemicals worth $15,000, all subject to EU export bans from April 2022 to June 2023 due to their potential contribution to the enhancement of Russia’s defence, security, and industrial sectors. They included $8,200 worth of NMP, the same solvent discovered at the Barcelona port, plus $5,800 worth of isopropanol and $2,550 of hydrogen peroxide.

The shipment made to Catrosa Reactiv from Complexe Sancu, the Spanish wine export company run by Maria Oleinikova’s children, contained around $3,650 worth of sodium hydrogen carbonate — also known as sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. But despite its benign uses, the chemical was prohibited for export from the EU to Russia in April 2022 under the category of “goods which could contribute to the enhancement of Russian industrial capacities.”

‘Europeans Don’t Have the Infrastructure to Check’

Experts say that the EU’s customs systems are insufficient to deal with the bloc’s extremely broad sanctions on chemical exports to Russia, making it easy for shipments like the ones from Spain to slip through the net.

In international shipping, exporters label their goods using broad group identifiers known as HS Codes, which can cover a wide range of products including both banned and permitted substances. This means that it is possible to export a chemical under an HS Code that does not identify the presence of a specific banned substance.

Elina Ribakova, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., said that HS Codes including sanctioned products are supposed to be flagged as high risk and checked more closely by customs officials.

But in practice, she said, this doesn’t always happen: “The question is whether the product is correctly classified under its appropriate HS Code and whether it is actually being checked.”

Even though the EU and Spain have created additional code numbers designed to add further detail to the international HS Code categories, Ribakova said it’s still “very hard to pin down a product” as they tend to be grouped.

“Europeans don’t have the infrastructure to check more holistically something that is not a nuclear or very specialized weapon,” she told OCCRP, adding that these limitations make it “relatively easy” to export sanctioned products.

In the case under investigation in Spain, exporters mixed batches of sanctioned chemicals inside larger shipments of legal substances, or listed false destinations on customs paperwork, such as Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, to disguise the fact that shipments were headed for Russia, investigators told OCCRP.

Credit: Policia Nacional

Chemicals seized by Spanish police during “Operacion Probirka.”

One of the investigators working on the case told OCCRP that evidence obtained so far shows the shipments did not in fact pass through those countries, and that the companies listed as recipients were fronts.

Instead they went overland to Russia via other countries, including Poland and Belarus, he claimed. It’s not clear which, if any, of the people or companies under investigation made use of these tactics. But import records for Catrosa Reactiv reviewed by OCCRP and its partners show that it received one shipment of the sanctioned chemical NMP in 2023 that originated in Spain, but was routed via a Kyrgyz company, NK Muras LLC.

The data shows that shipment was manufactured by one of the companies under investigation by Spanish authorities for illegally exporting sanctioned chemicals in the case involving Oleinikova.

According to the import records the supplier acting on the “order” of NK Muras was Vlate Logistik LLC, a Belarusian transport and storage company sanctioned by the EU in December 2024 for its proximity to the Moscow-aligned regime of President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

In 2024, Complexe Sancu, the Spanish export company managed by Maria Oleinikova’s children, sent at least one shipment of NMP to NK Muras. Available records do not show whether that shipment ultimately ended up with Catrosa Reactiv.

Separate transaction data obtained by reporters indicate that Catrosa Reactiv paid NK Muras more than $240,000 in 2023 for three shipments of unspecified pharmaceutical ingredients.

Neither NK Muras nor Vlate Logistik responded to requests for comment.

In 12 Minutes, All Communications Nationally is Gone

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It was a very real condition until just hours ago where the United States Secret Service found the threat. W can only hope it has been neutralized and there is no more threat…but read on…

After checking several sources for as much complete information, below are some terrifying details. There are likely more to be revealed in coming days as the investigation continues.

Per the Secret Service website:


NEW YORK – The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials, which represented an imminent threat to the agency’s protective operations.

This protective intelligence investigation led to the discovery of more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites.

In addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks. This includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.

While forensic examination of these devices is ongoing, early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran. “The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled.”

These devices were concentrated within 35 miles of the global meeting of the United Nations General Assembly now underway in New York City. Given the timing, location and potential for significant disruption to New York telecommunications posed by these devices, the agency moved quickly to disrupt this network. The U.S. Secret Service’s Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit, a new section of the agency dedicated to disrupting the most significant and imminent threats to our protectees, is conducting this investigation. This investigation is currently ongoing.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the NYPD, as well as other state and local law enforcement partners, provided valuable technical advice and assistance in support of this investigation.

This is an ongoing investigation.

***

The BBC in part also adds this:

The devices were seized from SIM farms at abandoned apartment buildings across more than five sites. Officials did not specify the locations.

The discovery followed an investigation into anonymous “telephonic threats” directed at three US government officials this spring, unnamed officials told the New York Times.

One of the officials works in the Secret Service and the other two work at the White House, according to the newspaper.

Investigators also told CBS News they found 80g of cocaine, illegal firearms, computers and phones.

***

CBS includes in part:Telephonic threats to multiple senior U.S. officials this past spring – including multiple people protected by the Secret Service – first triggered the investigation, but officials say the network was seized within the last three weeks.

Still, another official added that “it would be unwise to assume” there aren’t other such networks in the U.S.

The investigation remains ongoing, according to the U.S. Secret Service. There have been no arrests yet, but officials said, “there could be arrests down the road,” adding that “from an operational perspective, we want those behind the network to know that the Secret Service is aware and that we’re kind of coming for them.”

This photo provided by the U.S. Secret Service, in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, shows part of a wall of SIM boxes that were seized by the agency. (U.S. Secret Service via AP)

This photo provided by the U.S. Secret Service, in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, shows part of a wall of SIM boxes that were seized by the agency. (U.S. Secret Service via AP)

Then from the Associated Press in part:

The operation had the capability of sending up to 30 million text messages a minute, McCool said.

“The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled,” the agency’s director, Sean Curran, said in a statement.

Officials also warned of the havoc the network could have caused if left intact. McCool compared the potential impact to the cellular blackouts that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, when networks collapsed under strain. In this case, he said, attackers would have been able to force that kind of shutdown at a time of their choosing.

U.S. Naval Operations in the Caribbean VS. Maduro VS China

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There are nine naval assets in the Caribbean due to Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro and his position as a drug king pin. the assets include destroyers, amphibious assault ships, reconnaissance, fighter aircraft, a submarine and drones.

Newsweek has a great map of the deployments and ship descriptions. Included in the Newsweek piece is the following:

The deployment reflects the Trump administration’s assertive approach to countering drug trafficking while signaling pressure on the Venezuelan government. Late on Tuesday, U.S. forces in the region launched a missile strike that destroyed a suspected drug boat linked to Venezuela, killing those on board, Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

By positioning advanced warships and long-range aircraft near Venezuelan waters, Washington is seeking to demonstrate both tactical capability and political resolve. In response, Venezuela is mobilizing troops and military assets, raising the prospect of a direct standoff in the southern Caribbean.

What is likely not revealed by these operations in the Caribbean is the matter of China. China has moved into the region in a huge force and very few are even aware of this threat. How so you ask?

In part: By 2022, ten countries had already joined Beijing’s so-called Belt and Road Initiative: Cuba, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica

China’s growing influence in Cuba and the broader Caribbean region has raised concerns among U.S. experts, who warn that Beijing’s expanding economic and military presence could pose a strategic threat to the United States.

China has significantly expanded its influence in the region through economic investments, diplomatic ties, and military cooperation, particularly with authoritarian regimes like Cuba. Experts warn that these efforts are part of a broader strategy to turn the Caribbean into a “Chinese lake,” according to a Newsweek report published on Sunday.

According to World Trade Organization data, Chinese manufacturing exports surged to $1.81 trillion in 2023, a 30-fold increase from 2002, while the U.S. global trade deficit exceeded $1.2 trillion. Chinese trade with the Caribbean skyrocketed from $1 billion in 2002 to $8 billion in 2019, including $6.1 billion in exports and $1.9 billion in imports.

China’s Deepening Ties With Cuba

Cuba has been one of China’s most loyal allies in the region for decades, with strong economic and military cooperation. A significant uptick in this relationship was observed in 2021, following Cuba’s July 11 (11J) protests, when Chinese paramilitary forces trained Cuban elite security units responsible for suppressing dissent. The Brigada Especial Nacional (BEN), a unit under Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior, reportedly received tactical training from China’s People’s Armed Police (PAP), a paramilitary force specializing in riot control and counterterrorism.

Sources told ADN Cuba that PAP training in Cuba began approximately six years before the 2021 protests, focusing on sniper tactics, intervention strategies, and specialized training for elite Cuban security forces. This collaboration underscores China’s role in bolstering the Cuban regime’s ability to suppress political opposition.

Beyond infrastructure projects and military cooperation, China is also strengthening its diplomatic and cultural footprint in communist Cuba. In May 2024, Beijing and Havana resumed direct flights between the two countries. The Cuban regime has also introduced visa exemptions for Chinese citizens with ordinary passports, making travel between both nations easier. More details here.

20th anniv. of China-Bahamas ties marked in Beijing - Xinhua | English ...

*** FNC has called on experts to describe the Chinese threat so close to to the U.S. coastline.

China is steadily expanding in the Bahamas through projects that blur economic development and geopolitical aims, an expert warned.

“The People’s Republic of China has been making diplomatic, economic and even military and quasi-military inroads into the Caribbean, South and Central America for the past couple of decades,” retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown, former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital.

Brown pointed to the rise in dual-use infrastructure projects along the Bahamas coastline, which is located just 50 miles off the coast of Florida.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for the People’s Republic of China to use its commercial footprint in the Bahamas to monitor, exploit and perhaps even do worse to [the] U.S.,” he said.

Pointing to the Chinese-controlled British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, Brown said that its location directly across from the U.S. Embassy could give way to intelligence gathering on U.S. personnel.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think that additional electronics were put in there with the purpose and the task of keeping an eye not only on the U.S. Embassy itself, but also the U.S. Embassy visitors,” he said.

The hotel is owned by a Chinese company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has raised geopolitical concerns given its location. Fox News Digital has reached out to the British Colonial Hotel for comment.

China has invested heavily in the Bahamas through a range of additional high-profile projects, including a $40 million grant for a national stadium, a $3 billion mega-port in Freeport, and $40 million for the North Abaco Port and Little Abaco Bridge.

Additionally, China EXIM Bank provided over $54 million in loans to construct a four-lane highway and nearly $3 billion to finance the development of the Baha Mar Resort.

*** You can bet our high tech naval assets are picking up information and reporting back to the national security council and Secretary of State Marco Rubio…it is no wonder he has spent a good deal of time in the region.

9/11 24 Years Later, New Details Emerge

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One has to understand the FBI had serious domestic cases during the tenure of then Director Louis Freeh. No one was paying enough attention to counter-terrorism cases  and the same could be said for the CIA. This link from a Penn State investigator and summarized by Reuters takes us back to the cases that consumed the Bureau and hence Saudi operatives were not on the priority mission set.

The 9/11 survivors and families are still in the fight to resolve the matter of complicity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. What does that look like yu ask? A big hat tip to investigative journalist Catherine Herridge for her work on interviews and documents, newly discovered that the 9/11 Commission either ignored or missed.

We are at a time where after 24 years, nothing should be redacted or embargoed.

Herridge reports: JUST IN: We have confirmed that the @FBI is aware of our new investigation that challenges the timeline of events surrounding the 9/11 attacks. We understand that our reporting today on the Saudi “Advance Team” will be reviewed for leads and the Bureau welcomes tips and information from 9/11 families.

 

The new information includes that some hijackers entered the United States as early as 13 months prior to 9/11 as advanced teams. Additionally, two other nodes of operations include Missouri and Oklahoma.

So many conspiracies continue to float about how GW Bush shares guilt and split loyalties. The information Herridge covers actually should place guilt and split loyalties with then President Clinton and then FBI Director Louis Freeh and his lack of leadership but one must also look at Congress because the FBI had gone through a time of a hiring freeze.

The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on ...

The consequences of unreleased documents, lack of re-examining the evidence of work of the 9/11 Commission and more interviews is still a requirement. While almost 3000 died due to the attacks of that horrible day…more have perished since due to illnesses caused by working ground zero.

9/11 Families United have the following on their website which remain open questions and unresolved today.

United States on the Cartel Cleanup

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Only recently did Mexico agree to extradite 26 cartel leaders to the United States which actually is the second time in just a few months. We often wonder why it takes so long to get Mexico to cooperate much less build cases in a court of law to ensure a win. Well, for some background, Associated Press has published the following, which is a good explanation…so read on.

It begins with a car accident two years ago in Tennessee….

In part from the AP:  The cases, as outlined in court documents, provide a glimpse into how drugs produced by violent cartels in large labs in Mexico flow across the U.S. border and reach American streets. They also highlight the violent fallout that drug trafficking leaves in its path from the mountains of Mexico to small U.S. towns.

Inside Jalisco Mexican 'young team' cartel primed for new wave of evil ... Credit DailyRecord 

 

“These cases in particular serve as a powerful reminder of the insidious impacts that global cartels can have on our local American communities,” Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The chain started with a violent cartel in Mexico and it ended with law enforcement being shot at in a small town.”

United Cartels is an umbrella organization made up of smaller cartels that have worked for different groups over time. It holds a fierce grip over the western state of Michoacan, Mexico.

United Cartels is not as widely known as Jalisco New Generation, but given its role as a prolific methamphetamine producer, it has become a top tier target for U.S. law enforcement. It was one of eight groups recently named foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

A car crash and an abandoned protective case

The case goes back to 2019, when two dealers got into a car accident in a small town outside Knoxville, Tennessee, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in court. While fleeing the scene of the crash, they threw a hardened protective case filled with meth behind a building before being caught by police, according to court documents.

Authorities began investigating, using wiretaps, search warrants and surveillance to identify a man believed to be leading a major drug ring in the Atlanta area: Eladio Mendoza.

The investigation into Mendoza’s suspected drug operation led law enforcement in early 2020 to a hotel near Atlanta. During their surveillance, authorities spotted a man leaving with a large Doritos bag. Troopers tried to stop the man after he drove from Georgia into Tennessee but he fled and fired an AK-style rifle at officers, hitting one in the leg before another trooper shot him. Inside the bag, police found meth and heroin, and identified him as a low-level dealer for Mendoza’s drug ring, court records say.

Weeks later, authorities searched properties linked to Mendoza and seized phones. They discovered messages between Mendoza and a close associate of “El Abuelo,” the leader of United Cartels, that showed the drugs were coming from Mexico, according to the court records. On one of Mendoza’s properties, investigators found a tractor trailer that had crossed from Mexico days earlier. When they searched it, authorities seized 850 kilograms of meth hidden in the floor of the truck and discovered more drugs inside a bus and a home on the property, court papers say.

Mendoza fled the U.S. a short time later and returned to Mexico, where he was killed by cartels leaders angry that U.S. authorities had seized their cash and drugs, according to prosecutors.

Cartels are targeted with terrorist designations

The case represents the latest effort by the Republican administration to turn up the pressure on cartels through not only indictments of the groups’ leaders but sanctions. The Treasury Department is also bringing economic sanctions against the five defendants as well as the United Cartels as a group and another cartel, Los Viagras.

“We have to pursue these criminals up and down the chain to make sure that the end result doesn’t result in violence and narcotics distribution on our streets,” Galeotti said.

In addition to “El Abuelo,” those facing U.S. indictments are Alfonso Fernández Magallón, or Poncho, and Nicolás Sierra Santana or “El Gordo,” who authorities say lead smaller cartels under the United Cartels organization. The two other defendants are Edgar Orozco Cabadas or “El Kamoni,” who was communicating with Mendoza, and Luis Enrique Barragán Chavaz, or “Wicho,” who serves as Magallón second-in-command, according to authorities.

The Trump administration has seen major cooperation from Mexico in recent months in turning over cartel leaders wanted by U.S. authorities.

In February, Mexico sent the U.S. 29 drug cartel figures, including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, to the U.S. And on Tuesday, the Mexican government transferred to American custody 26 additional cartel leaders and other high-ranking members, including a man charged in connection to the killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

“We’re working with the Mexican authorities to pursue these individuals,” Galeotti said. “We continue to work proactively with them, and we expect that they’ll be helpful with us in securing the presence of these individuals in United States courtrooms.”