For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 1, 2001
Fact Sheet Overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
Introduction
The Administration has released the names of drug
traffickers against whom the President has determined to impose
sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (21
U.S.C. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. 1182). The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin
Designation Act (the "Kingpin Act?") targets, on a worldwide basis,
significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and
operatives.
Background
The Kingpin Act is the result of legislation
originally introduced by Senators Coverdell and
Feinstein. Its purpose is to deny significant foreign
narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives
access to the U.S. financial system and all trade and transactions
involving U.S. companies and individuals. The Kingpin Act
authorizes the President to take these actions when he determines that
a foreign narcotics trafficker presents a threat to the national
security, foreign policy, or economy of the United
States. Congress modeled the Kingpin Act after the effective
sanctions program that the Department of the Treasury's Office of
Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") administers against the Colombian drug
cartels pursuant to Executive Order 12978 issued in October 1995 under
authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act
("IEEPA").
Implementation
The Kingpin Act requires that the
Departments of Treasury, Justice, State, and Defense, and the Central
Intelligence Agency, coordinate to identify proposed kingpins for
designation by the President. By June 1 each year, the
President is required to report to specified congressional committees
those "foreign persons [he] determines are appropriate for sanctions"
and detailing publicly his intent to impose sanctions upon those
foreign persons pursuant to the Act. While this is a
recurring annual requirement, the President may designate significant
foreign narcotics traffickers at any time.
The long-term effectiveness
of the Kingpin Act is enhanced by the Department of the Treasury's
authority (in consultation with the Departments of Justice, State, and
Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration) to make
derivative designations as in OFAC's program against the drug cartels
in Colombia. This authority broadens the scope of
application of the economic sanctions against designated kingpins to
include their businesses and operatives. In addition,
designated individuals and immediate family members who have knowingly
benefited from the designated individuals' illicit activity will be
denied visas to the United States.
The Kingpin Act provides for
criminal penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for individuals and
up to a $10 million fine for entities for violations, as well as a
maximum of 30 years imprisonment and/or a $5 million fine for officers,
directors or agents of entities who knowingly participate in
violations. The Kingpin Act also provides for civil
penalties of up to $1 million.
Designations
The foreign persons that
the President has determined are appropriate for sanctions pursuant to
the Kingpin Act are: Osiel Cardenas Guillen; Miguel Caro Quintero;
Joaquin Guzman Loera; Ismael Higuera Guerrero; Oscar Malherbe de Leon;
Alcides Ramon Magana; Jose Alvarez Tostado; Sher Afghan; Nasir Ali
Khan; Chang Ping Yun; Jamil Hamieh; and Joseph Gilboa. These
names are being added to the list of initial designations pursuant to
the Kingpin Act announced in June 2000. The initial
designations were: Benjamin Alberto Arellano-Felix; Ramon Eduardo
Arellano-Felix; Jose de Jesus Amezcua-Contreras; Luis Ignacio
Amezcua-Contreras; Rafael Caro-Quintero; Vicente Carrillo-Fuentes;
Chang Chi-Fu; Wei Hsueh-Kang; Noel Timothy Heath; Glenroy Vingrove
Matthews; Abeni 0. Ogungbuyi; and Oluwole A. Ogungbuyi.
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