Reported by MICAELA VARELA

(Excerpt featured below. To read full report, go to: https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-06-16/us-targets-los-chapitos-money-laundering-network-in-mazatlan-run-by-a-businessman-and-a-makeup-artist.html?outputType=amp)

They appeared to be two young people flush with success. He, a promising businessman with several real estate and hotel businesses, dedicated to managing investments in the worlds of entertainment and hospitality. She, an ambitious entrepreneur in the makeup industry with her own party dress store and the owner of a luxury spa. Last Monday, the bubble of ostentation burst when the Treasury Department published their names on its sanctions list for facilitating the Los Chapitos criminal network, as well details of all their companies involved in the drug money laundering network in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. José Raúl Núñez Ríos and Sheila Paola Urías Vásquez are in the sights of U.S. authorities for their involvement with the Sinaloa Cartel.

The facade of successful businesspeople began to crumble when the U.S. Treasury Department noticed that Núñez was amassing his fortune at a suspicious rate. The 44-year-old lawyer, born in Rosario, Sinaloa, founded his first company in late 2019, before the Covid pandemic: Grupo 247 Real Estate, dedicated to the construction and sale of properties. On social media, he promoted real estate investment opportunities near the coasts and beaches of Mazatlán. “Imagine the house of your dreams facing the sea, listening to the waves, watching the sunrise. All this is possible by investing in property in the Playa Brujas Subdivision. Contact us, we will make your dreams come true,” read his first posts.

His wife, Sheila Paola Urías Vásquez, 31, is a well-known figure in Mazatlán for her work as a makeup artist on social media. Urías started a YouTube channel in 2017, where she showcased her makeup skills in tutorials. In less than a year, she opened a beauty salon and spa offering massages and esthetic treatments. She cut the red ribbon on the premises accompanied by her family, including her sister Melissa, who was a candidate for local representative for the Green Party at just 24 years old. Urías herself lent her face, covered in clay masks, to advertise the establishment’s services. Soon, the salon was being frequented by models and influencers, such as Sinaloa beauty queen Pety Juárez.

The married couple managed to acquire or establish up to a dozen companies for their network in the space of just six years. Most of them were related to real estate development, but also to the world of fashion and beauty and the hospitality industry. Ten of these companies have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for their links to the Sinaloa Cartel.