WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced the designation of Mexican national Alfredo Vasquez Hernandez (a.k.a. Alfredo Compadre) pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for providing support to and acting on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel and its leader, Joaquin Guzman Loera (a.k.a.Chapo Guzman).
“Alfredo Vasquez Hernandez has played a key role in Chapo Guzman’s drug trafficking and bulk cash smuggling operations,” said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. “Today’s designation of Chapo Guzman’s logistical coordinator increases the pressure on the Sinaloa Cartel and Chapo’s drug trafficking organization.”
As a result of today’s action, U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with the designees and any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen.
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois indicted Vasquez Hernandez in August 2009 on two counts of conspiring to traffic drugs in an indictment targeting the Sinaloa Cartel and its leaders, Chapo Guzman and Ismael Zambada Garcia. The indictment charges Vasquez Hernandez and others with conspiring to import cocaine and heroin into the United States. Specifically, the indictment describes Vasquez Hernandez as the logistical coordinator of the importation of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Mexico and South and Central American countries into the United States, and of deliveries of bulk currency from the United States to Mexico to Chapo Guzman. Mexican authorities arrested Vasquez Hernandez in January 2011. His extradition to the United States is currently pending.
OFAC worked closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in particular, the DEA Chicago Field Division and the DEA Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area/Southern California Drug Task Force on this investigation.
Today’s action is part of ongoing efforts pursuant to the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers worldwide. Internationally, more than 1,000 individuals and entities linked to drug kingpins named by the President and OFAC have been designated pursuant to the Kingpin Act since June 2000.
Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1.075 million per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $5 million. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals face up to 10 years in prison and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act.
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