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Five senior CJNG members charged in D.C.; DOJ details alleged roles and fraud links
Summary
The criminal division named five defendants charged in D.C. with drug trafficking and firearms offenses and connected two of them, and others, to separate fraud indictments in the Eastern District of New York alleging a timeshare scam that defrauded thousands. DOJ described the alleged roles — logistics, weapons procurement, sicario units — and said some defendants face additional fraud-related charges in New York.
Assistant Attorney General Tyson Dua of the Criminal Division outlined the charges and described the defendants' alleged roles in CJNG's operations. He named Julio Alberto Castillo Rodriguez (alias Choro); Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gaetan (alias Sappho); Ricardo Ruiz Velasco (Treba); Julio Cesar Montero Pinzon (Tardetas) and Carlos Andres Rivera Varela (La Firma) as the five defendants whose charges were unsealed in the District of Columbia.
Dua said those individuals are charged with trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl into the United States and with overseeing armed units and weapons procurement. He also linked some of the people to separate fraud indictments in the Eastern District of New York that prosecutors say used timeshare scams and spoofed government and legal documents to extract money from victims. "Once someone paid, the fraudsters contacted them again, posing as lawyers or officials who could recover the money for another fee," Dua said, describing the scheme's mechanics.
The DOJ official offered specific examples of harm: one victim, an 83-year-old American who originally bought a timeshare for $179,000, was repeatedly bilked and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. "It victimized this man for hundreds of thousands of dollars over 8 years," Dua said. Prosecutors have also obtained superseding indictments in the Eastern District of New York related to those fraud charges.
What remains unchanged: these are allegations reflected in indictments and press statements; the defendants' guilt will be determined in court.
