BVI company MLA Investments Inc. was recently identified as one of five entities which form part of the financial network controlled by the powerful Colombian drug cartel North Valle and its leaders Raul Grajales and Beto Renteria. The press release informing on this matter was issued by the US Treasury department’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) on last Tuesday.
The report includes data on 22 companies identified as “specially designated narcotic traffickers†controlled by Grajales and Renteria. Their financial network includes entities incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Panama and the Cayman Islands. Besides MLA Investments Inc. in the BVI, other companies targeted in the sweep are Brunello Ltd and Jamce Investments Ltd in Grand Cayman, and Villarosa Investments Corporation in Panama City.
The assets of the offshore companies included in the network are frozen by the US Treasury Department. The US Treasury Department not only seizes the US-based assets of Grajales, Renteria and other known associates, but also prohibits all financial and commercial transactions between any American persons and those individuals.