WASHINGTON – President Bush on Thursday added nine new targets to the nation's congressionally mandated list of individuals and organizations the administration deems to be major foreign narcotics traffickers. Those on the list are subject to a variety of economic and other U.S. sanctions.
Added this year was one organization, the Mexico-based Arriola Marquez Organization, and eight individuals, four of them Mexicans: Oscar Arturo Arriola Marquez; Miguel Angel Arriola Marquez; Ignacio Coronel Villareal; and Rigoberto Gaxiola Medina.
Also added to the "foreign narcotics kingpin" list were Marco Marino Diodato del Gallo of Bolivia, Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia of Guatemala, Haji Baz Mohammad of Afghanistan and Wong Moon Chi of China.
The list has been updated each year since 2000. To date, the president has designated 57 "kingpins," according to a White House fact sheet.
The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act is designed to "deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and all trade and transactions involving U.S. companies and indviduals."
The sanctions are overseen by the Treasury Department.
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