US Treasury Sanctions
Guatemalan Drug Family
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Treasury
Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions
against Guatemala's Lorenzana family,
accusing them of running one of the
country's biggest drug trafficking networks,
with ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
The Treasury blacklisted the family
patriarch, Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, and his
three sons, Eliu Lorenzana Cordon, Haroldo
Lorenzana Cordon and Waldemar Lorenzana
Cordon, as "specially designated narcotics
traffickers".
The action bans U.S. citizens and residents
from any transactions with them and seeks to
freeze any assets they may have under U.S.
jurisdiction.
The Treasury said in a statement that the
Lorenzanas play a key role in facilitating
cocaine shipments between Colombia and
Mexico. It said they work with Mexico's
northwest Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine
from Guatemala into the United States.
"Treasury will continue to target Mexican
drug cartels wherever they are operating,"
Adam Szubin, the head of the Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in
the statement. "Today's designation of
Guatemalan drug traffickers from the
Lorenzana family allied with the Sinaloa
cartel allows us to open another battlefront
against Mexican transnational drug
trafficking organizations."
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
has outstanding arrest warrants for the four
Lorenzanas and is offering a $500,000 reward
for information leading to Waldemar
Lorenzana's arrest and up to $200,000 for
each of the three sons.
The family has maintained that its wealth is
earned through legitimate businesses, such
as agriculture and construction, not drugs.
The Treasury has recently stepped up its
sanctions against Mexican drug gangs, which
U.S. authorities blame for a spike in
killings near the U.S. border in recent
months. The Obama administration imposed
similar sanctions against leaders of the
Sinaloa cartel in April 2009 under the
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Eric
Walsh)
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