Homeland Security

Text: Treasury Department Adds to List of Narcotics Traffickers

(137 individuals and businesses linked to Colombia's Cali cartel)
(600)
On February 5, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) added 59 businesses and 78 individuals linked to
Colombia's Cali drug cartel to its list of Specially Designated
Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs), according to a press release issued
February 6 by Treasury Department.
OFAC has determined that the 137 new SDNTS are acting as fronts for
the Cali cartel in Colombia and Spain, and are subject to economic
sanctions.
Under a 1995 Executive Order that applies sanctions to Colombian drug
cartels, the OFAC action blocks the assets of SDNTs found in U.S.
jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. citizens from doing business with
them. The assets of 749 Colombian drug cartel businesses and
individuals are now blocked under the Executive Order, the Treasury
Department said.
Following is the text of the Treasury Department press release:
(begin text)
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Washington, D.C.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2003
Treasury Designates Cali Cartel Network in Spain and Colombia
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) last
night added the names of 59 businesses and 78 individuals to its list
of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). SDNTs are
subject to the economic sanctions imposed against Colombian drug
cartels in Executive Order 12978. OFAC has determined that these 137
new SDNTs are acting as fronts for Colombia's Cali drug cartel and are
part of its international business and financial network operating in
Spain and Colombia. The drug cartel businesses added to the list of
SDNTs today are all determined to be owned or controlled by Cali
cartel leaders Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, currently incarcerated in a
Colombian maximum security prison, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, and
other named SDNTs.
The OFAC action blocks the assets of SDNTs found in U.S. jurisdiction
and prohibits Americans from doing business with them, thereby further
exposing, isolating, and incapacitating Colombian drug cartels and
their agents. The 59 Cali drug cartel businesses announced today
include 10 Colombian-owned Spanish companies and 49 Colombian
companies. In Spain, the businesses include real estate firms, an
Internet services company, a coffee import/export company, a general
services company, a graphic arts services provider, and a film
distribution services company. In Colombia, the businesses include a
money exchange house, pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors,
import/export firms, and investment, real estate and consulting
companies.
The network of 59 Cali cartel fronts in Spain and Colombia named today
on the list join 244 other Colombian drug cartel businesses on the
SDNT list. The list includes Cali cartel businesses Copservir, and its
Drogas La Rebaja drugstore chain and Credirebaja charge card, the
America de Cali professional soccer team, the Cosmepop cosmetics
company, the Farmacoop pharmaceutical laboratory, a Cali radio
broadcasting company, as well as consulting, investment, construction,
real estate, agricultural, and distribution firms.
This action is part of the ongoing interagency effort of the Treasury,
Justice and State Departments to carry out Executive Order 12978,
signed on October 21, 1995, which applies economic sanctions against
Colombia's drug cartels.
The assets of a total of 749 Colombian drug cartel businesses and
individuals are now blocked under the 1995 Executive Order; and those
businesses and individuals are prohibited from American financial and
business dealings. The list of SDNTs includes 12 kingpins from
Colombia's Cali, North Valle, and North Coast drug cartels.
The list of businesses and individuals named by OFAC as SDNTs today is
attached and available at www.treas.gov/ofac, as is the entire list of
SDNTs. Today's list will be published in the Federal Register at a
later date.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)