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US Sanctions Guatemalan Drug Family
 David Lawder - Reuters
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April 27, 2010
Washington - The Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against Guatemala's Lorenzana family, accusing them of running one of the country's biggest drug trafficking networks, with ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
The Treasury blacklisted the family patriarch, Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, and his three sons, Eliu Lorenzana Cordon, Haroldo Lorenzana Cordon and Waldemar Lorenzana Cordon, as "specially designated narcotics traffickers."
The action bans U.S. citizens and residents from any transactions with them and seeks to freeze any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.
The Treasury said in a statement that the Lorenzanas play a key role in facilitating cocaine shipments between Colombia and Mexico. It said they work with Mexico's northwest Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine from Guatemala into the United States.
"Treasury will continue to target Mexican drug cartels wherever they are operating," Adam Szubin, the head of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in the statement. "Today's designation of Guatemalan drug traffickers from the Lorenzana family allied with the Sinaloa cartel allows us to open another battlefront against Mexican transnational drug trafficking organizations."
The Drug Enforcement Administration has outstanding arrest warrants for the four Lorenzanas and is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to Waldemar Lorenzana's arrest and up to $200,000 for each of the three sons.
The family has maintained that its wealth is earned through legitimate businesses, such as agriculture and construction, not drugs.
The Treasury has recently stepped up its sanctions against Mexican drug gangs, which U.S. authorities blame for a spike in killings near the U.S. border in recent months. The Obama administration imposed similar sanctions against leaders of the Sinaloa cartel in April 2009 under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
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