FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Treasury Department today added the names of Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya, a leader of one of the most powerful drug trafficking groups that comprise Colombia's North Valle drug cartel, and Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, a Cali cartel drug kingpin, to the list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). SDNTs are subject to the economic sanctions imposed against Colombian drug cartels.

The Treasury 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 two Colombian drug kingpins named to the SDNT list today by Treasury are responsible for huge volumes of drugs that have entered the United States. In addition to the two drug kingpins, Treasury added five businesses and one associated individual that it has determined are acting as fronts for the North Valle drug cartel.

This action is part of the ongoing interagency effort of the Treasury, Justice and State Departments to carry out President Clinton's Executive Order 12978, signed on October 21, 1995, which applies economic sanctions against the Colombian drug cartels. With the addition of the names released today, the assets of a total of 532 businesses and individuals are blocked under the 1995 Executive Order; and those businesses and individuals are prohibited from American financial and business dealings.

The list of SDNTs now includes nine kingpins from Colombia's drug cartels, namely Cali cartel drug kingpins Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, Jose Santacruz Londoño, Helmer Herrera Buitrago, and Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia; North Coast cartel drug kingpin Julio Cesar Nasser David; and North Valle cartel drug kingpins Ivan Urdinola Grajales, Julio Fabio Urdinola Grajales, and Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya. The U.S. Government will continue to identify businesses owned or controlled by Colombian drug cartels and expand the SDNT list to include additional drug traffickers and their organizations.

The list of businesses and individuals named by Treasury today as SDNTs is attached and available at www.ustreas.gov/ofac, as is the entire list of SDNTs. The list will be published in the Federal Register at a later date.