Dora Villanueva
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, October 31, 2025, p. 11
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department sanctioned an organization based in Cancun, Mexico, accused of facilitating “human trafficking” to the United States. The investigation was carried out jointly by other agencies in this country and the Mexican Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF).
OFAC pointed to the “Bhardwaj human trafficking organization”; its alleged leader, Vikrant Bhardwaj, a citizen with dual Indo-Mexican nationality; to his wife; two more partners, and 16 companies of being part of a “human trafficking” network to that country. The US agency accuses this group of having “illegally introduced thousands of undocumented immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, South America and Asia to the United States.”
Although OFAC assures that it is a measure against “human trafficking,” it does not specify whether it is a trafficking scheme for white women or migrants who leave their countries of origin in search of improving their income. What his order does make clear is the stigma on people in transit “from countries that represent a threat to the national security of the United States.
“Today’s action, in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, disrupts this network’s ability to illegally introduce undocumented immigrants into the United States,” said Undersecretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley, in statements collected by the Treasury.
OFAC detailed that the network facilitated the entry of people through the Cancun International Airport. Upon arriving in the coastal city, they are given accommodation in hotels, before coordinating their transfer to the border with the United States, through the Tapachula-Cancún-Mexicali corridor. According to the US agency, people employed by the Sinaloa Cartel also provide “operational support” to this plot.
In addition to the sanctions against Bhardwaj, who is also accused of being involved in drug trafficking, bribery and money laundering, OFAC sanctioned his wife Indu Rani, with dual Indo-Mexican nationality, for participating in her partner’s financial operations and being a shareholder in several companies in India and Mexico.
The sanctioned partners also include José Germán Valadez Flores, identified by the Treasury as a businessman and drug trafficker, and Jorge Alejandro Mendoza Villegas, former Quintana Roo police officer.
OFAC coordinated this action with Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FIU of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico.
