U.S. Puts Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami on Sanctions List. Official, placed on Treasury’s kingpins list, allegedly aided drug traffickers (emphasis added)
Executive Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Venezuelan financier Samark Lopez were placed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklist, the Treasury Department said in a statement Monday. The list freezes their assets in the U.S. and blocks U.S. companies and individuals from doing business with them.
Mr. El Aissami “facilitated shipments of narcotics from Venezuela,” while serving as Venezuela’s Interior Minister and then governor of the central Aragua state, said the statement. “He oversaw or partially owned narcotics shipments of over 1,000 kilograms from Venezuela on multiple occasions.”
For the Zetas, among others,
The Treasury department on Monday said Mr. El Aissami, as Interior Minister, was paid for using his control of Venezuelan air bases, ports and highways to facilitate drug shipments from Venezuela and Colombian druglords as well as Mexico’s Los Zetas drug cartel.
Alek Boyd has been reporting on El Aissami for years,
Tareck el Aissami & Samark Lopez sanctioned for drug trafficking. Will @USTreasury get SFO to probe UK proxies? https://t.co/Qq0D5U2OTC
— Alek Boyd (@alekboyd) February 14, 2017
