Beach clubs, real estate, and spas: The money laundering network of Los Chapitos in Mazatlán run by a businessman and a makeup artist.

They seemed like two young people swimming in success. He was a promising businessman with several real estate and hotel ventures, dedicated to managing investments in the world of entertainment and hospitality. She was an ambitious entrepreneur in the makeup industry with her own evening dress shop and at the helm of a luxury spa. This Monday, the bubble of ostentation burst when the Treasury Department published their names on the sanctions list for being facilitators of the criminal network known as Los Chapitos, along with a list of all their companies involved in the money laundering scheme tied to drug trafficking in Mazatlán. The marriage of José Raúl Núñez Ríos and Sheila Paola Urías Vásquez is under scrutiny by U.S. authorities due to their ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The facade of prosperous entrepreneurs began to crumble when the U.S. Treasury detected that Núñez was amassing his fortune at a suspicious speed. This 44-year-old lawyer, born in Rosario, Sinaloa, founded his first company at the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic. It was Inmobiliaria Grupo 247, dedicated to the construction and buying and selling of real estate. On social media, he promoted investment opportunities in properties near the coast and beaches of Mazatlán. “Imagine the house of your dreams by the sea, listening to the waves, watching the sunrise. All this is possible by investing in Houses of the Playa Brujas subdivision. Contact us, we will make your dreams come true,” read his early 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 skills by doing makeup tutorials on her large green eyes. In less than a year, she opened a beauty salon and spa offering massages and aesthetic treatments. She cut the ribbon of the establishment accompanied by her family, including her sister Melissa, who was a candidate for local deputy for the Green Party at just 24 years old. Urías herself would model clay mask ads to promote the services of the establishment. In no time, the venue became frequented by models and influencers, including Sinaloa’s beauty queen, Pety Juárez.

The marriage of Núñez and Urías managed to acquire or establish up to a dozen companies for their network in just six years. Most of them were related to real estate development, but also to fashion, beauty, and hospitality. Ten of these companies have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for their links to the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. authorities claim that Núñez finances the operations of Víctor Manuel Barraza Pablos, the plaza chief of Los Chapitos in Mazatlán. He is also accused of being a “close associate” of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán’s fugitive sons.

Núñez and Urías’s businesses play a specific role in each part of the real estate development chain, from lot acquisition, obtaining construction materials, selling or renting through real estate agencies, to even a marketing agency to promote them. In 2024, Urías registered a company named Bloquera Real MX, dedicated to manufacturing and selling blocks, bricks, or tiles. However, neither this company nor the real estate agency Ocean Plus, of which she was the manager in 2024, appeared on the preliminary sanctions list from the U.S. In 2020, Núñez acquired the construction company Proyecta Interna, established the previous year. This company had permits to urbanize, sell, or lease properties, just like Grupo 247 or Beach and Marina.

Luis Pérez de Acha, a lawyer specializing in money laundering, explains that the real estate sector is very attractive for money laundering because large investments are required. “The challenge is how cash is integrated into the financial system. It operates as a front, but in money laundering, real transactions are made that pay taxes,” notes the specialist, who also points to the suitability of the real estate boom that Mazatlán has experienced in the last five years as the perfect breeding ground. Furthermore, in Mexico, a cash limit of up to 907,000 pesos is allowed for the purchase of real estate, an amount that complicates tracking its origin.

In real estate development, there are various routes to integrate illicit money into financial flows, where it mixes with legal money to obscure its origin. Payments for land, the purchase of materials, architect fees, or labor wages can all be made in cash. In construction, it is customary to use cash for most transactions, from the beginning to the end of the sector’s chain, according to Salvador Díaz de León, a money laundering prevention specialist. “You have the real estate company, the developer, the material supply company, the transportation company, and a human resources company for labor. There’s a chain of associated companies that enables laundering,” he explains.

Among Núñez and Urías’s companies were also businesses dedicated to hospitality, particularly beach clubs. In these venues, it’s easier to simulate legitimate operations by inflating sales figures or increasing invoices. One of them was the Sea Wa Beach Club, created in 2024, with permission not only for bar, restaurant, and fishing as tourist activities but also for renting cabins, bungalows, and tourist apartments. Núñez was also a legal representative in the company Club Playa Real, founded in 2000, where he began participating later. Similar to Beach and Marina or Comercializadora Copado (an import/export company), these businesses were registered several years before Núñez and Urías took direct roles. Hernández notes that it is common in money laundering schemes to “reactivate” previously established entities that have legitimate operational and financial histories, helping them remain below the radar.

In addition to the beach clubs, Urías had her own evening dress shop, available for purchase or rental for special occasions. The shop is located at the corner of the offices of Inmobiliaria Grupo 247, where luxury cars were frequently seen parked. Urías only made public appearances at this shop and the spa; in other companies, she appears as a temporary manager or shareholder. “Putting anyone as a front or name-holder shifts the focus from the owner to someone who doesn’t pull the strings. It allows another individual to remain in the shadows. It’s a shield strategy for protection,” notes Hernández.

Both Pérez de Acha and Hernández agree that the change in U.S. policy regarding Mexican drug cartels, now considered a terrorist organization, has triggered a hunt for financial facilitators for the criminals. However, the Sinaloa Cartel has countless resources to weave complex laundering networks with the guidance of high-profile lawyers and accountants, both inside and outside Mexico. Following the announcement from the U.S. Treasury, it is now the turn of Mexican financial entities to report these companies to the Financial Intelligence Unit so that they can come under the authorities’ scrutiny. For the moment, their assets and properties in the U.S. are frozen.