FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
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November 24, 2004
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Treasury Names Leaders of Mexican Narcotics Cartel
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today took another step to stifle the financial networks of drug traffickers by adding the names of six individuals to its list of persons designated pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act).
This action targets individuals who represent the top hierarchy of the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO), which was named as a drug kingpin by President Bush on June 1, 2004 pursuant to the Kingpin Act.
"The AFO is considered one of the strongest and most violent drug trafficking organizations operating in the Americas. Today's action underlines the sustained effort by the U.S. Government to tackle the illicit proceeds harvested by drug traffickers," said OFAC Director Robert Werner.
The Southern District of California unsealed an indictment in July 2003 that included these six individuals on charges of conducting the affairs of an illegal enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity (RICO), conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, as well as money laundering.
The six AFO leaders designated by OFAC are Jesus Abraham Labra Aviles, Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, Efrain Perez Pasuengo, Jorge Aureliano Felix, Rigoberto Yanez Guerrero and Armando Martinez Duarte. All six individuals are from Mexico. Today's action prohibits all financial and commercial transactions between the designated persons and entities and any U.S. person and freezes any assets found in the United States.
OFAC has also added five addresses in the Mexican state of Baja California that are controlled by Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, named a drug kingpin by the President on May 29, 2003. Four of the addresses are located in the city of Tijuana, Mexico and the other is a rural beachfront property along the coast of Baja California. Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno was also one of several leaders of Mexico's first organized drug trafficking group, the Guadalajara Cartel, in the late 1970s and mid-1980s and was a principal member of the Carrillo Fuentes Organization (CFO) or Juarez Cartel in the 1990s. The CFO was named a drug kingpin by the President on June 1, 2004 pursuant to the Kingpin Act.
Today's action against AFO leaders and CFO-associated drug kingpin Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno is part of the U.S. government's continued efforts to fight both notorious Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
The six new names bring the total number of Tier I and Tier II designees under the Kingpin Act to 121: 48 drug kingpins worldwide, 15 companies in Mexico, Peru and the Caribbean and 58 other individuals in Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean.
This action is part of the ongoing interagency effort of the Treasury, Justice, State, Defense and Homeland Security Departments, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration to carry out the Kingpin Act, which was signed into law on December 3, 1999, and which applies economic sanctions against narcotics traffickers on a worldwide basis. The Kingpin Act was modeled after Executive Order 12978 which applies economic sanctions against narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia, and which is also administered by OFAC.
For a complete list of the entities designated today, please visit:
www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions/20041124.shtml
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