Most discussions on U.S. assistance to antidrug efforts in Colombia highlight the increased militarization of the armed forces and doing battle against guerillas and other criminal factions. Yet part of the counternarcotics battle also centers on white-collar crimes involving the billions of dollars from the drug trade.Case in point: the U.S. Treasury has moved to freeze the assets of accused Colombian drug trafficker Pedro Antonio Bermudez Suaza. The Treasury also blacklisted 14 companies in three Latin American countries and targeted thirteen people linked to Suaza including family members and business associates. The actions prohibit any U.S. bank or consumer from doing business with the man arrested in October 2008 and facing charges in a U.S. federal court.
According to Treasury officials, the move hampers money laundering operations by Mexican and Colombian drug gangs:
"When Mexican authorities captured Bermudez Suaza, they took down a major conduit of cocaine between the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels," said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. "Today's designations expose Bermudez Suaza's numerous illicitly-obtained assets in his hometown of Medellin, Colombia as well as those in Mexico and Panama."Image-BBC News
Online Sources- Colombia Reports, NASDAQ, Reuters
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