A car accident, a series of secret wiretaps, a shootout with police and a drug bust eventually led federal investigators back to cartel leaders in Mexico.

The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on more than a dozen Mexican companies and four people it says worked with a powerful drug trafficking cartel to scam elderly Americans in a multimillion-dollar timeshare fraud.

Mexico's security chief Omar García Harfuch and US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the deal in separate statements.

As part of its crackdown on gangs, the US Justice Department has offered $26m in rewards for Carteles Unidos leaders.

On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed indictments connected to an investigation that began in 2019 in a "after two drug dealers got into a car accident in a small Tennessee town" and resulted in charges against cartel leaders in Mexico,

Roberto Martinez-Cabrera of Kennewick was sentenced by U.S. Judge Mary Dimke to 10 years in prison and five years probation for conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and distributing 40 grams or more of fentanyl.

Mexico cartel leaders are among the 26 fugitives who are set to be punished in the United States. Jordon Hudson, the current girlfriend of former NFL coach Bill Belichick, and his ex-girlfriend, Linda Holliday, attended the same fundraiser

Mexico says it sent 26 alleged cartel figures to the United States at the request of the Trump administration and to prevent these individuals from running their illicit businesses from Mexican prisons.