Homeland Security

Text: U.S. Blocks Additional Assets Linked to Cali Drug Cartel

(Assets of 766 businesses and individuals blocked since 1995 order)
(670)
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that it is blocking
the assets of nine businesses and eight individuals with links to the
Colombia-based Cali drug cartel.
In a March 21 news release, Treasury said it had added the names of
the businesses and individuals to the department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) list of Specially Designated Narcotics
Traffickers (SDNTs). The action blocks the assets of the SDNTs in U.S.
jurisdictions and bars U.S. entities from doing business with them.
Treasury described the action as part of an ongoing interagency effort
to carry out an October 1995 executive order authorizing economic
sanctions against Colombia's drug cartels.
The assets of a total of 766 Colombian drug cartel businesses and
individuals have now been blocked under that executive order, Treasury
said.
Following is the text of the news release:
(begin text)
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Office of Public Affairs
March 21, 2003
Treasury Designates Additional Cali Cartel Fronts in Colombia
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
today added the names of nine businesses and eight 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. 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, arrested in Colombia on March 12, 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 network of nine Cali drug cartel businesses
announced today includes eight companies in Colombia and one
Colombian-owned business in the U.S. Businesses named today include
several affiliated with William Rodriguez Abadia, who is indicted in
the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and whom the Colombian National
Police sought to arrest during an operation in February. Among the
businesses named today as SDNTs are: Coopcrear, a front which services
cartel business accounts, including payments on-behalf of the cartel's
business Copservir, and its Drogas La Rebaja drugstore chain;
Credivida, a front affiliated with the Drogas La Rebaja drugstore
chain's Credirebaja charge card; Seguwra del ValleE.U., a security
front owned by William Rodriguez Abadia; and Servicios Myral E.U. and
C y S Medios E.U., two additional companies with security functions
affiliated with the Rodriguez Orejuela organization. Financial
cooperatives, such as Coopcrear named today, are created by the Cali
cartel using trusted corporate officers to provide bank account
services to its business fronts. Also named today as part of the
cartel's financial network is the Colombian stock brokerage firm
Obursatiles S.A. and its U.S. affiliate, Internacional de Divisas
S.A., LLC, a money exchange house based in Miami, Florida. Obursatiles
S.A. has been blocked pending investigation since February 12.
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 766 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 SDNTs named today is attached and is available at
www.treas.gov/ofac, as is the entire list of SDNTs. A graphic
describing the use of Colombian financial cooperatives, such as
Coopcrear named today, by the Cali cartel also is available. 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)