The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets control designated Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio, the former regional director of the Colombian Prosectutor’s Office in Medellin, as a narcotics trafficker for his ties to druglord Daniel Rendon Herrera.
OFAC sanctions freeze all assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Herrera was designated in May 2009, and he faces federal narcotics importation and narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in the U.S. for allegedly having drug transportation networks throughout Colombia that facilitate the shipment of cocaine to the U.S. and Europe, the department said in a statement. Cossio, however, was arrested in August 2008 by Colombian authorities and is on trial for corruption and conspiracy to provide material support to drug traffickers, including Herrera.
“Today’s designation targets Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio for his abuse of power as a public official in Colombia on behalf of Daniel Rendon Herrera’s drug trafficking organization,” said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin in the statement.
The designation announcement came the same day as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime urged greater cooperation on stopping drug traffickers. “Drug trafficking continues to be the most lucrative line of business for criminals,” said Yuri Fedotov, a Russian diplomat who took serves as executive director of the UNODC. “Cocaine and heroin traffickers are earning almost $280 million every day, almost $12 million every hour, and almost $200,000 every minute.”
Separately, OFAC also announced the designation of Running Brook LLC and La Hacienda, two U.S.-based companies owned or controlled by Fernando Melciades Zevallos Gonzales, a Peruvian national himself designated by the agency as a drug trafficker.
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