The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
5/13/2020
Treasury Targets Medellin-Based Drug Trafficker, Key Link Between Colombian and Mexican Drug Cartels
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Press Center
Treasury Targets Medellin-Based Drug Trafficker, Key Link Between Colombian and
Mexican Drug Cartels
5/27/2009
To view or print the PDF content on this page, download the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®.
TG-147
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated Medellin-based drug
trafficker Pedro Antonio Bermudez Suaza (alias " El Arquitecto") as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker (SDNT) pursuant to
Executive Order 12978. OFAC also designated as SDNTs 13 other individuals and 14 entities located in Colombia, Mexico, and Panama.
Mexican authorities captured Bermudez Suaza in Mexico City on October 2, 2008.
"When Mexican authorities captured Bermudez Suaza, they took down a major conduit of cocaine between the Colombian and Mexican
drug cartels," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. "Today's designations expose Bermudez Suaza's numerous illicitly-obtained assets in
his hometown of Medellin, Colombia as well as those in Mexico and Panama."
Bermudez Suaza, whose criminal expertise is centered on the smuggling of cocaine via aircraft, was arrested in October 2008 by
Mexican authorities on charges related to narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Bermudez Suaza also faces federal drug trafficking
charges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where he was indicted in September 2008.
Today's action also targets 13 individuals who act on behalf of Bermudez Suaza. Mexican nationals Felipe Bermudez Duran (Bermudez
Suaza's son), Julio Cesar Sanchez Martell, and Omar Alfredo Jacome Del Valle are three of the individuals designated today. Mexican
authorities arrested these three men in 2007 for their links to a plane carrying 3.7 metric tons of cocaine, which crashed in Mexico on
September 24, 2007. This failed smuggling operation was managed by Bermudez Suaza. OFAC also designated several Colombian
nationals -- including Bermudez Suaza's mother, Maria del Carmen Suaza Barco, another of Bermudez Suaza's sons, Santiago Bermudez
Luque, and key financial associates Martha Marina Munera Velasquez and Natalia Andrea Vasquez Valencia -- for their roles as front
persons for Bermudez Suaza's assets in Colombia
Fourteen companies controlled by Bermudez Suaza were also designated today. In Mexico, Aeronautica Condor S.A. de C.V., a small
airline, and Consultoria en Cambios Falcon S.A. de C.V., a small money service business (" centro cambiario"), were designated. In
Panama, Grupo Falcon de Panama, S.A., which owns commercial real estate, was designated. In Colombia, the designated entities
include Taxi Aereo Antioqueno S.A., a small Medellin-based airline, Llanotour Ltda (a.k.a. Hosteria Llanogrande), a hotel management
company in Rionegro operated by front person Martha Marina Munera Velasquez, and Franzul S.A., a real estate holding company.
Through his Colombian companies, Bermudez Suaza owns numerous real properties in the Medellin area.
This designation is part of the ongoing interagency effort by the Department of the Treasury and the Departments of Justice, State and
Homeland Security to implement Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995, which applies financial sanctions against Colombia's drug
cartels. Today's designation action freezes any assets the designees may have that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits all
financial and commercial transactions by any U.S. person with the designated entities and individuals. OFAC thanks U.S. law
enforcement agencies' offices in Mexico and Colombia for their assistance with this investigation.
###
REPORTS
bermudez suaza organization.pdf
https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg147.aspx
1/2
5/13/2020
Treasury Targets Medellin-Based Drug Trafficker, Key Link Between Colombian and Mexican Drug Cartels
https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg147.aspx
2/2
@FedFRASER