On December 1, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Jhon Fredy Zapata Garzon for providing goods or services in support of narcotics trafficking for the Clan del Golfo, pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). OFAC also designated three of Garzon’s family members and associates as well as four businesses that they own or control.
The Clan del Golfo, also known as Los Urabeños, has become one of the largest “Armed Criminal Organizations” in Colombia, identified by the President as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act in 2013, and identified as a top transnational organized crime threat by the US Attorney General in 2018. The group is responsible for shipping tons of cocaine into Panama and other countries in Central America, a majority of which is exported by criminal organizations to the US. In 2018, Zapata Garzon was responsible for the shipment of approximately 4,500 kg of cocaine for the Clan del Golfo.
The designations were the result of a coordinated effort between OFAC and the US Southern Command. As a result of these designations, all US property belonging to these individual and entities are blocked, and all transactions in the US are generally prohibited.