Sanctions and organized crime
Yesterday the Colombian police reported that FARC is weakening. Has the battle against cocaine trafficking and money laundering finally paid off? The efforts of the US government are reported to have contributed to these results.
I find the US Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act very interesting in its approach. For anyone who is not familiair with the Office of Foreign Assest Control (OFAC) a very short introduction. OFAC enforces US sanctions programs. Most people know the anti terrorism sanctions against Iran for instance. But did you know that for US persons it is not allowed to do any transaction with or hold assets for Designated terrorists “Special Designated Narcotic Traffickers / Kingpins”? Most of them are Colombian or Mexican. The Secretary of Treasury can designate a person as a Narcotics Trafficker or Kingpin. Penalties of violation: up to 30 years in prison and/or a fine of max $ 10 million. (By the way: US citizens are still fined for online ordering of Cuban sigars and importing them based on the sanctions against Cuba; fines are usually a couple of hundred dollars).
You will realize the power of this law if you consider that most banks that process dollar payments are “US persons”. Banks are expected to have a solid anti money laundering program. Checking all transactions against OFAC lists is one of the expectations. Result: all financial transactions to persons on the list (or unlucky guys and girls with the same name) are blocked and reported to the Sanctions program. Depending on the investigation, the assets are seized or released. A very pro-active, controversial (questions on the evidence needed to end up on the list for instance) but powerful approach.
The UN and EU have similar sanctions programs but do not seem to extend the reach to organized crime. An opportunity ? Perhaps. The main leaders of organized crime in Europe, as here in the US, are known to law enforcement (albeit proving that in court is a different story). Listing them would help seize assets from gangsters that have been convicted to repay their illegal proceedings but apparently have empty pockets. Also, it would deter third parties to engage in business deals, effectively containing the criminals.
Exploring possibities of such list management for organized and financial crime programs would be good but leaves a question; would high level criminals on these lists do transactions in their own names?
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/narco/drugs.pdf
