HomeNewsBriefColombian Drug Gang the Rastrojos Face US Sanctions
BRIEF

Colombian Drug Gang the Rastrojos Face US Sanctions

COLOMBIA / 31 JAN 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

The US government has placed sanctions on Colombian drug gang the Rastrojos, including one of its top leaders who was captured last year, suggesting the United States is preparing to target the weakened group’s financial assets.   

The US Treasury Department designated Diego Perez Henao, alias "Diego Rastrojo," along with his Rastrojos organization, as "Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers" under the terms of the Kingpin Act. As a result, US citizens are banned from conducting business with its members, and any of the group's assets under US jurisdiction will be frozen.

The Rastrojos, which emerged from the ranks of the now defunct Norte del Valle cartel, have been among the main players in the Colombian underworld for several years. Until his capture in Venezuela last year, Diego Rastrojo was the group's military chief.

According to the Treasury’s press release: Diego Rastrojo was "the main source of supply for numerous multi-ton loads of cocaine smuggled into the US, owning and coordinating airborne and maritime cocaine shipments destined for the US through Venezuela to Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico."

The Rastrojos' two other main leaders, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, alias "Comba," and his brother Luis Enrique Calle Serna, both surrendered to US authorities last year.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Rastrojos emerged as an independent drug trafficking group during the protracted break-up of the Norte del Valle Cartel in the period 2007-2009, and became one of Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

In some ways it is surprising the Treasury is only acting now, when the group is in disarray, lacking centralized leadership and fending off attacks from rivals the Urabeños. However, it is possible the Treasury designation is based on information offered by the Calle Serna brothers since their surrender.

If so, this could be a sign the Rastrojos will soon face a legal attack on its remaining leadership figures and financial assets, an assault that the already weakened and fracturing group is ill-equipped to withstand.

Rastrojos

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 20 APR 2022

Repeated seizures along the United Kingdom’s southern coast have shown how the area is gaining relevance as a secondary route…

COLOMBIA / 19 DEC 2022

Entrenched criminal groups on the Colombia border keep resisting Venezuelan Army efforts to root them out.

COLOMBIA / 5 OCT 2021

Colombia’s top military commander says 40 percent of ELN and ex-FARC fighters operate in Venezuela, a figure that must be…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…