US issues sanctions against ‘rainbow’ fentanyl pills cartel

The US Treasury Department announced sanctions yesterday on Mexico’s Familia Michoacana drug cartel, which it accused of manufacturing ‘‘rainbow’’ fentanyl pills purportedly aimed at children. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, blocked any US properties of the Hurtado brothers, the leaders of the cartel, and prohibited US citizens from having dealings with them. The cartel is based in the southern state of Guerrero and is often known as ‘‘The New Michoacan Family,’’ to distinguish it from an older gang that was largely expelled from the western state of Michoacan in the mid 2010s.