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August 30, 2007
HP-543
Treasury Targets Colombian Drug Traffickers
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated four significant Colombian drug traffickers, Miguel Angel Mejia Munera, Victor Manuel Mejia Munera, Ramiro Vanoy Murillo and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs) pursuant to Executive Order 12978. OFAC also designated today several front companies and related individuals.
"The Mejia Munera brothers are violent fugitives from justice," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. "Today's action furthers OFAC's effort to destabilize and undermine the operations of these Colombian traffickers."
In 2004, the District Court for the District of Columbia indicted twin brothers Miguel Angel Mejia Munera and Victor Manuel Mejia Munera ("Los Mellizos") on narcotics trafficking charges. The Mejia Munera brothers have been involved in narcotics trafficking since the early 1990s when they guarded ships transporting cocaine loads from the western coast of Colombia to Mexico. Over time, Los Mellizos rose through the ranks to lead their own narcotics trafficking organization. Recent reports indicate that Los Mellizos may be funding their own illegal armed groups to facilitate their narcotics trafficking activities. Both are fugitives from justice and the United States is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Miguel Angel Mejia Munera.
In 1999, the Southern District of Florida indicted Ramiro Vanoy ("Cuco Vanoy") and Zuluaga Lindo ("Gordo Lindo") on narcotics trafficking charges. Ramiro Vanoy Murillo and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo are currently in a Colombian prison awaiting extradition to the United States.
OFAC also designated several front companies and individuals including a Mejia Munera holding company, Compania Comercializadora de Bienes Raices Ltda. in Cali and a sporting company, Sociedad Superdeportes Ltda. in Bogotá owned by Zuluaga Lindo. Two key Zuluaga Lindo front individuals, Daniel Alberto Mora Ricardo and Mary Luz Nova Carvajal were also named by OFAC along with their company, ABS Health Club S.A.
This designation is part of the ongoing interagency effort by the Departments of the Treasury, Justice, State and Homeland Security and others to implement Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995, which applies economic sanctions against Colombia's drug cartels. Today's designation action freezes any assets the designees may have subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and prohibits all financial and commercial transactions by any U.S. person with the designated companies and individuals.
The assets of a total of 1,530 businesses and individuals in Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Vanuatu, Venezuela, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the United States have been blocked pursuant to E.O. 12978. The 600 businesses that have been named as SDNTs include agricultural, aviation, consulting, construction, distribution, financial, hotel, investment, manufacturing, maritime, mining, offshore, pharmaceutical, real estate, retail, service, sporting, telecommunication, and textile companies. The SDNT list includes 26 drug kingpins from the Cali, Medellin, North Valle, and North Coast narcotics trafficking organizations in Colombia, including those named today.
Please find attached a chart of the individuals and entities designated today.
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REPORTS