Guatemala Family Targeted for Drug Trafficking

Do government actions against Guatemala drug families make an impact on their business? The Treasury Department appears to believe the action is necessary. According to a Washington Post report, the Department imposed sanctions against the Lorenzana family. This group of individuals have been accused of running one of Guatemala’s biggest drug tracking networks, with ties to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.

The family patriarch, Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, and his three sons, Eliu Lorenzana Cordon, Haroldo Lorenzana Cordon and Waldemar Lorenzana Cordon, have all been blacklisted by the Treasury as specially designated narcotics traffickers. As a result of this ban, no U.S. citizen or resident can legally conduct any transaction with them.

In a statement, the Treasury said that the Lorenzanas play a significant role in the facilitation of cocaine shipments between Colombia and Mexico. Reportedly, this family works with Mexico’s northwest Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine from Guatemala into the United States. By contrast, the family continues to maintain that its wealth is earned through legitimate businesses, such as agriculture and construction, not drugs.

"Treasury will continue to target Mexican drug cartels wherever they are operating," Adam Szubin, the head of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in the statement. "Today’s designation of Guatemalan drug traffickers from the Lorenzana family allied with the Sinaloa cartel allows us to open another battlefront against Mexican transnational drug trafficking organizations."

Outstanding arrest warrants exist for the four Lorenzanas and the Drug Enforcement Administration is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Waldemar Lorenzana and as much as $200,000 for each of the three family sons.

Tags: drug trafficking