Treasury Designates Additional FARC International Commission Members

Treasury Designates Additional FARC International Commission Members
TREAS.GOV - The U.S. Department of the Treasury ^ | January 14, 2009 | n/a

Posted on 01/15/2009 10:39:43 PM PST by Cindy

HP-1353 "Treasury Designates Additional FARC International Commission Members"

SNIPPET: "Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated three international representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-terrorist organization. The OFAC action was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which applies financial sanctions against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and organizations, like the FARC.

"Today's action exposes three additional members of the FARC's International Commission," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of OFAC. "The FARC is one of the world's largest suppliers of cocaine and continues to be Colombia's most notorious and vicious narco-terrorist organization. This is the seventh action over the past year that OFAC has taken against this group and we will continue our efforts to financially isolate the FARC, its leaders and their support network."

The three individuals designated are identified as key members of the FARC's International Commission: Omar Arturo Zabala Padilla (alias "Lucas Gualdron"), Maria Remedios Garcia Albert (alias "Soraya" and "Irene"), and Vlaudin Rodrigo Vega (alias "Carlos Vlaudin"). These International Commission members represent the FARC in France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Australia.

As representatives of the FARC and members of its International Commission, these individuals work abroad to obtain recruits, support, and protection for the FARC's acts of narcotics trafficking and terrorism. Omar Arturo Zabala Padilla, the FARC's International Commission member for France, Italy and Switzerland, directs nearly 80% of the FARC's activities in Europe, which include contacts with other terrorist groups and arms deals. Maria Remedios Garcia Albert, the FARC's International Commission member for Spain, a key liaison between the leadership of the FARC and its supporters based in Europe, was arrested by Spanish authorities on July 26, 2008 and later released pending trial. Files recovered from the computer of Raul Reyes, a top FARC leader who was killed by Colombian forces in a March 2008 raid, noted the "special support" of Vlaudin Rodrigo Vega, the FARC's International Commission member for Australia."