Washington — The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sweeping sanctions on members of an alleged Mexico-based human smuggling network that it says trafficked people from four continents using yachts, hotels and cartel connections, a move officials say underscores the Trump administration's intensifying strategy to treat migrant trafficking schemes as a direct threat to national security.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted the Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization, its alleged ringleader Vikrant Bhardwaj plus three accomplices and 16 affiliated entities on Thursday. The sanctions will freeze any U.S. property or interests tied to the sprawling group and bar U.S. persons from conducting financial transactions with the alleged criminal organization.

According

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