17 October 2003
Treasury Dept. Designates Network of Cali Drug Cartel Front Companies
39 businesses, 95 individuals added to list of narcotics traffickers
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added 39 businesses acting as front companies for the Colombia-based Cali drug cartel and 95 individuals associated with the cartel and its activities through front companies to the Department's list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs).
In a press release issued October 17, the Treasury Department explained that the Cali cartel "has laundered money and has penetrated the Colombian economy" through a network of pharmaceutical businesses. "Today's action demonstrates the Cali cartel's continued use of pharmaceutical companies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to launder drug money and to penetrate the legitimate economy," said OFAC Director Rick Newcomb. "The U.S. banking and pharmaceutical sectors should renew their vigilance against providing financial services or supplying products to these front companies."
Stressing that the Treasury Department "will continue to work with Colombian authorities on further actions to shut down the cartel's financial network," the Department noted that "the international network of 39 Cali cartel fronts named today join 340 other Colombian drug cartel businesses on the SDNT list."
Following is the text of the Treasury Department press release, with further details:
(begin text)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Washington, D.C.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2003
TREASURY DESIGNATES NETWORK OF CALI DRUG CARTEL FRONT COMPANIES
WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today added 39 businesses acting as front companies for the Cali drug cartel based in Colombia and 95 individuals associated with the cartel and its activities through front companies, to its list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). Through a network of pharmaceutical businesses, the cartel has laundered money and has penetrated the Colombian economy. These front companies form a vital part of the Cali cartel's international money laundering network. This action freezes their assets and prohibits financial and commercial transactions with U.S. nationals. The Treasury Department will continue to work with Colombian authorities on further actions to shut down the cartel's financial network.
"Today's action demonstrates the Cali cartel's continued use of pharmaceutical companies throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to launder drug money and to penetrate the legitimate economy," stated OFAC Director Rick Newcomb. "The U.S. banking and pharmaceutical sectors should renew their vigilance against providing financial services or supplying products to these front companies."
Included among the 39 businesses designated today are Interfarma/Jomaga de Costa Rica in Costa Rica, Latinfarmacos and Espibena in Ecuador, Colfarma Peru in Peru, Premier Sales in Panama, and C.A. V.J. Corporation in Venezuela, all affiliated with the international drug distribution of Cali cartel pharmaceutical laboratories Pentacoop and Farmacoop on the SDNT list. Also named today are numerous financial fronts in Colombia, such as Coopdisan, Drofarco, and Incommerce, which are created by the Cali cartel using trusted corporate officers to provide bank account services to its business fronts. Inversiones Carfeni and two Internet companies in Spain and Ash Trading Inc. in the United States were also named. Today's action is a follow-up to sanction actions directed against the Cali cartel in February and March of this year.
The international network of 39 Cali cartel fronts named today join 340 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 Obursatiles stock brokerage and Internacional de Divisas money exchange house, the Cosmepop cosmetics company, the America de Cali professional soccer team, as well as consulting, investment, financial, construction, real estate, agricultural, and distribution firms.
This action is part of the ongoing interagency effort of the Treasury, Justice, State, and Homeland Security 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 958 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 14 kingpins from Colombia's Cali, North Valle, and North Coast drug cartels.
To see the full text of the Treasury Department announcement, including its fact sheet and diagram listing the businesses and individuals named by OFAC as SDNTs today, go to: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js915.htm
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031017180250nesnom0.3982813&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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