Three new cartel fentanyl fugitives on feds most wanted list from Los Chapitos

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As thousands of people overdose from fentanyl every year in Illinois and die, federal drug agents are stepping up their efforts to track down cartel operatives responsible for trafficking the drugs. Each has a seven-figure bounty on their head. They join an exclusive list of men considered the nation's most wanted drug dealers; alleged top operatives for a cartel that supplies the vast majority of Chicago street drugs.

Chicago's most wanted fugitive is still Nemesio Ruben Oseguera-Cervantes. As the I-Team has reported for the past five years, El Mencho, as he's known, has been considered the city's public enemy number one. He is the leader of the bloodthirsty New Generation Cartel that law enforcement says smuggles huge drug shipments from Mexico to the streets of Chicago.

Even as El Mencho's capture would pay out a $10-million reward, and he occupies a special place on the U.S. wanted list, federal drug authorities have quietly added three new operatives to the top ten fugitive list. They are from a splinter cartel group called Los Chapitos, owned and operated, according to the feds, by the sons of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. He is currently locked up for life in America's Supermax prison.

"The big takeaway for me is there's a change in what the United States Department of Justice and DEA deem as the biggest threat to the United States. And now with fentanyl, these younger generations represent that threat. They're the ones producing it. They're the ones getting it across the border," said Ed Farrell, ABC7 law enforcement expert and owner of Silver Star Protection Group.

Fentanyl is cheaper to make, transport, buy and faster to cause overdose deaths.

A large portion of the 100,000 opioid deaths every year in the U.S. are attributed to fentanyl.

One of the three new cartel fugitives, Kun Jiang, is charged with supplying the chemicals to produce fentanyl. He is a Chinese national, making his arrest a special challenge for law enforcement.

"You know, they're not a democracy. It's a very closed society. It's hard to develop information. It's hard to work with their law enforcement. It's near impossible. We don't have an extradition treaty with them. That's a much harder lift," said Farrell.

He says the fentanyl fugitives will now be high priority cases for Drug Enforcement Administration officials and more manpower and resources are being thrown at trying to apprehend them. It's a strategy, Farrell says, that has worked from Pablo Escobar, the Colombian narco terrorist, to El Chapo the billionaire Mexican cartel boss.