U.S. PUTS SQUEEZE ON DRUG LORDS

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, trying to topple drug kingpins, moved
Friday to block the financial assets of two leaders of the violent North
Valle drug cartel in Colombia, which has smuggled tons of cocaine into the
United States.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Diego Leon
Montoya Sanchez and Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante to the U.S. government's
list of specially designated narcotics traffickers.

The action means any assets belonging to the two men found in the United
States or within its jurisdiction would be frozen and that Americans are
forbidden from doing business with them.

The action goes to "further exposing, isolating and incapacitating Colombian
drug cartels and their agents," the Treasury Department said.

The Colombian drug kingpins named Friday "smuggle multi-ton quantities of
cocaine into the United States," the department said.

In addition, the department added 21 individuals and 13 businesses in
Colombia that it believes are acting as fronts for leaders of the North
Valle drug cartel.

Treasury officials said it would take time to determine whether any of the
individuals and businesses added to the list Friday has assets in the United
States.

A 1995 executive order gives the department the authority to try to
financially paralyze suspected drug cartels and kingpins targeted by the
United States.