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5/12/2020 Treasury Targets Financial Network of the FARC’s 48th Front U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Press Center Treasury Targets Financial Network of the FARC’s 48th Front 6/17/2010 To view or print the PDF content on this page, download the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®. TG-748 WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today targeted a financial network of the 48th Front, which forms a part of the Southern bloc of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), located along the border of Colombia and Ecuador and Peru. OFAC today designated the 48th Front's finance chief Olidem Romel Solarte Ceron and key leaders of the Jefferson Ostaiza Amay drug trafficking organization as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers for acting for or on behalf of the FARC. Also designated today is a FARC arms trafficker, Gilma Montenegros Vallejos, and three entities with ties to the FARC. Today's action marks OFAC's 14th set of designations against the FARC and its support networks since 2004 and was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these individuals and entities, and freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction. "Today's designation builds on Treasury's longstanding campaign against the FARC by exposing their key support networks in Ecuador and Costa Rica," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. "We will continue to dismantle the FARC's financial and logistical networks and reveal its facilitators." The FARC was identified by the President as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act on May 29, 2003. The State Department designated the FARC as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2001 pursuant to Executive Order 13224 and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. Olidem Romel Solarte Ceron is the chief of finances and logistics for the FARC's 48th Front. He is responsible for distributing drugs for the 48th Front and worked closely with the former Commander of the FARC's 48th front Gentil Gomez Marin (a.k.a. Edgar Tovar) and the Jefferson Ostaiza Amay drug trafficking organization in Ecuador. Gomez Marin was killed in a Colombian Military operation in January 2010. Additionally, Solarte Ceron paid Montenegro Vallejos, also designated today, to gather weaponry in Peru and transport it to the FARC's Southern Bloc. Ecuadorian authorities arrested Montenegro Vallejos in March 2009 based on an Interpol Red Notice citing arms trafficking charges in Peru. Also named today are Miguel and Edison Ostaiza Amay, brothers of Jefferson Ostaiza Amay and key members of the Jefferson Ostaiza Amay drug trafficking organization. Jefferson and Edison own and control Multinational Integral Productiva Jooamy Ema, a real estate company in Quito, Ecuador, that is also being designated. Two agricultural companies located in San Jose, Costa Rica owned by previously designated FARC financial associate Jose Cayetano Melo Perilla, Agropecuaria San Cayetano de Costa Rica Ltda and Arrocera El Gaucho Ltda are also designated in today's action. Today's action, supported by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is part of Treasury's ongoing efforts pursuant to the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers worldwide. Internationally, OFAC has designated more than 750 businesses and individuals linked to 87 drug kingpins 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. For a complete list of individuals and entities designated today please visit link. To view the FARC 48 th Front's organization please visit link https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg748.aspx . 1/2 5/12/2020 Treasury Targets Financial Network of the FARC’s 48th Front ### https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg748.aspx 2/2
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