The U.S. Treasury Department added Colombian “drug trafficker” Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa and 69 other individuals and companies to the Kingpin List, a list of persons and entities the U.S. prohibits citizens from doing business with.
Cifuentes Villa, who also has Mexican citizenship, is accused of running an organization in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama and Spain that is closely allied with the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s largest and most powerful drug-trafficking organizations.
Cifuentes Villa was indicted for drug trafficking charges by a U.S. court in 2009.
The lists of persons and entities with alleged ties to Cifuentes Villa contains dozens of Colombian nationals and companies.
“Targeting the corporate empires of narcotics traffickers is at the core of our efforts to degrade these dangerous organizations,” Adam Szubin, director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.
He said the move against Mr Cifuentes Villa’s network would hinder its ability to launder narcotics-trafficking proceeds and the ability to profit from drug activities.
“Cifuentes Villa will no longer be able to masquerade as a legitimate businessman while supplying cocaine to the Sinaloa cartel,” Mr Szubin said.