Drug ring linked to El Chapo was charged with money laundering after allegedly smuggling millions of dollars in drugs through sea cucumbers. (AP, Buffalo News)

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

A drug ring linked to El Chapo was charged with money laundering after allegedly smuggling millions of dollars in drugs through sea cucumbers. (AP, Buffalo News).

Feds bust drug ring with ties to El Chapo smuggling $2.5M in narcotics labeled as ‘sea cucumbers’  

BUFFALO, N.Y. — An international drug ring that used containers labeled "sea cucumbers" to send millions of dollars' worth of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to western New York via California and Mexico has been busted, federal authorities announced Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul said 17 people have been indicted on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges as part of the investigation dubbed "Operation Lockjaw."

An international drug ring tied to the Mexico’s Sinaloa
drug cartel were busted trying to smuggle drugs
labeled as sea cucumbers.

 (TIM GRAHAM/GETTY IMAGES)

A fisherman holds a sea cucumber at Sinabang
 district in Indonesia.

 (RONI BINTANG/REUTERS)

Al Chapo

The ring linked to El Chapo's Sinaloa drug cartel used front companies in California and the Buffalo area to smuggle narcotics on pallets of goods purporting to be sea cucumbers, used in Chinese cuisine, officials said.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is seen shaved in a new mugshot released by Mexican authorities.

 (FEDERAL SOCIAL READAPTATION CENTER)

The Drug Enforcement Administration said the sting netted more than $2.5 million worth of illegal drugs, which included the equivalent of 1.5 million hits of cocaine and 2.7 million hits of heroin. The traffickers sent about $20 million from Buffalo-area banks to California in a one-year period, authorities said.

Drug lord El Chapo's extradition to U.S. on hold pending appeal

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by Taboola 

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