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Obama administration targets Mexican drug cartel figures
The Treasury Department is moving to freeze the assets of two associates of the infamous drug lord Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
All property and interests within U.S. jurisdiction belonging to Ines Coronel Barreras and Damaso Lopez Nunez will be blocked under 1999 legislation known as the “Kingpin Act,” Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced in a notice to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register.
Coronel Barreras is the father-in-law of Guzman Loera, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which is responsible for bringing multiple-ton shipments of narcotics from Mexico into the United States, according to OFAC.
Lopez Nunez, also known as “El Licenciado,” is considered the drug lord’s right-hand man and one of the cartel’s top lieutenants. He helped break Guzman Loera out of a Mexican federal prison, the same year the cartel boss – now Mexico’s most wanted man – was himself designated as a major drug trafficker under the Kingpin Act.
OFAC has targeted roughly 1,200 individuals and businesses linked to 97 drug kingpins since 2000.
