U.S. targets Lebanon-based drug smuggling network

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it was targeting a Lebanon-based drug trafficking and money laundering network suspected of doing as much as $200 million a month in business.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was labeling Ayman Joumaa, as well as nine people and 19 entities connected with his organization, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

The action means U.S. citizens are prohibited from any commercial or financial dealings with the people or entities and that any of their assets found in the United States can be seized.

The Treasury said Joumaa coordinated the transportation, distribution and sale of shipments of cocaine from South America, laundering the money in Europe and the Middle East.

It said the group operated in Lebanon, West Africa, Panama and Colombia and had laundered as much as $200 million per month through various channels.

The Treasury's action was taken under the so-called Kingpin Act that aims to disrupt foreign narcotics traffickers by preventing them from gaining access to the international financial system. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: Reuters

OFAC Targets Colombian Drug Traffickers Linked To Sinaloa Cartel Leader

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday it imposed Kingpin Act sanctions on four Colombian individuals and 12 companies tied to a Colombian national linked to the head of the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel.


Announced by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Colombian nationals Mauricio Barcenas Rivera, Omar Mejia Zuluaga and Ana Maria Uribe Cifuentes, and dual Uruguayan/Ecuadorian national Jesus Maria Castro all had their U.S. assets frozen. The companies are spread across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay.

The companies and individuals are all linked, according to the announcement (pdf), to Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, who was sanctioned by OFAC in February. Villa’s organization, OFAC said, is closely tied to Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as Chapo Guzman.

Both Guzman and Villa were indicted on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges in Florida in November 2010, and Villa was separately indicted in New York in February 2011 on drug-trafficking charges, according to Treasury’s notice.

The full list of Wednesday’s designations is available here, and a chart diagramming Villa’s drug network is here (pdf).

Source: The Wall Street Journal by Samuel RUBENFELD