US says a drug cartel is behind the longstanding problem of illegal fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) — For years, U.S. authorities and fishermen have complained about illegal fishing for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, and now it’s clear who is behind the lucrative trade: a Mexican drug cartel. The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Tuesday against members of the Gulf drug cartel, based in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros. The department says the cartel used fishing boats to combine the businesses of drug and migrant smuggling; along the way, the boats caught tons of red snapper, a commercially valuable but vulnerable species.