CJNG leader indicted in U.S. for timeshare fraud scheme targeting Americans

Two members of Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), including a senior leader, have been indicted in the United States for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that targeted thousands of American timeshare owners.

The Justice Department said Monday that Julio Cesar Montero Pinzon, also known as “El Tarjetas,” and his half-sister Griselda Margarita Arredondo Pinzon, both Mexican nationals, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Montero Pinzon also faces counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to do so. Neither defendant is in U.S. custody.

According to prosecutors, CJNG has operated an “advance fee” scheme since 2012, in which timeshare owners were deceived into paying upfront costs for false promises to sell or rent their properties. Victims, many of them U.S. citizens, were told to pay taxes or fees but never received the promised funds.

The indictment states that some victims were later contacted by fraudsters posing as lawyers or officials, who demanded additional payments under the guise of recovering lost money.

Investigators said Montero Pinzon oversaw financial networks for laundering proceeds from the scheme, while Arredondo Pinzon worked in a CJNG-controlled office that managed call centers and directed the flow of funds.

If convicted, Montero Pinzon and Arredondo Pinzon each face up to 20 years in prison on the fraud and money laundering charges.

Between 2019 and 2024, approximately 6,000 Americans reported losses of about $350 million linked to timeshare fraud in Mexico.

Officials from the FBI, DEA, and IRS-Criminal Investigation described the charges as part of a broader effort to cut off CJNG’s financial networks.

“This senior leader of a foreign terrorist organization allegedly defrauded innocent citizens to fuel terrorism against the American people,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The CJNG and other cartels are on notice: no scheme, plot, or conspiracy will evade the reach of this Justice Department.”

CJNG was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in February, following an executive order by President Trump. U.S. authorities describe it as one of Mexico’s most violent criminal groups and a major trafficker of fentanyl into the United States.