U.S. LISTS 12 FOREIGNERS AS DRUG 'KINGPINS'

The Treasury Department yesterday named Burmese warlord Khun Sa, six
notorious Mexican drug traffickers and five other foreign nationals as drug
"kingpins" and imposed strict economic sanctions against their cartels.

The department's first annual "kingpins" designation came under legislation
passed last year that seeks to expand the Clinton administration's kingpin
initiative in Colombia, where U.S. officials have imposed sanctions against
seven Colombian drug cartels and 526 related entities over the past five years.

Yesterday's listing, compiled by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets
Control, contained no surprises. All of those named are under indictment in
the United States for drug trafficking.

Benjamin Alberto Arellano-Felix and Ramon Eduardo Arellano-Felix, leaders
of Mexico's violent Tijuana Cartel, head the contingent of Mexican
traffickers. Other Mexicans named are Rafael Caro-Quintero, imprisoned for
the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena in
1985; brothers Luis Ignacio Amezcua-Contreras and Jose de Jesus
Amezcua-Contreras, amphetamine traffickers who also are imprisoned; and
Vicente Carrillo-Fuentes, head of the Juarez Cartel. The list also includes
two Asian traffickers, Khun Sa, listed under the name Chang Chi-Fu, and
Chinese national Wei Hsueh-Kang; a husband and wife from Nigeria, Oluwole
A. Ogungbuyi and Abeni O. Ogungbuyi; and two men from the Caribbean nation
of St. Kitts-Nevis, Noel Timothy Heath and Glenroy Vingrove Matthews.

"I think the names show a seriousness of purpose--we're going after the
true kingpins," a senior Treasury Department official said in a conference
call with reporters.

The official added that hundreds of businesses and individuals associated
with the named kingpins would soon be designated as "Tier 2" entities under
the act, which means they also will be barred from doing business with U.S.
firms.

"I think the second tier is where the rubber meets the road," the Treasury
official said. "We are going to do everything we can under the statute to
find out what these kingpins own and control and who is working on their
behalf."

Numerous companies designated as Tier 2 entities in Colombia have gone out
of business, and Colombian banks have refused to do business with those
designated by the U.S. government as kingpins or related entities, the
official said.

The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, signed by President Clinton
in December, empowers the Treasury Department to seize the U.S. assets of
designated kingpins and their Tier 2 associates. It also requires annual
publication of the kingpin listing, and it provides stiff civil fines and
jail sentences of as long as 30 years for U.S. firms and individuals who
violate the embargo.

Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), who sponsored the kingpin bill with Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), said, "The initial blacklist will help ensure
that this dirty dozen is shut off from the most powerful economy in the
world." Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), the chief House sponsor, said
publication of the kingpin list "sends a clear message to the world's worst
narco-criminals: 'Your time is up.' "

In passing the kingpin legislation, Goss and Coverdell agreed to the
creation of a commission to study the act's due process implications
because of concerns about the legal rights of U.S. firms that find
themselves unwittingly caught in the kingpin net.

Treasury Department officials, however, doubted that any firms would be
harmed in such a way, saying none has been cited for unlawful conduct as
part of the program in Colombia. "No U.S. company wants to get near a
cartel-owned company, once it's been identified," the official said.