U.S. imposes sanctions on Colombian drug trafficker known as “The Invalid”
The United States on Thursday sanctioned Pedro Luis Zuleta Noscué, a drug trafficker with guerrilla ties known by the alias “The Invalid” because he uses a wheelchair, accusing him of running labs in Colombia that produced tons of cocaine, heroin and a powerful strain of marijuana known as “creepy.”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) declared Zuleta and four others “significant foreign narcotics trafficker[s]” under the Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The measure effectively bars all U.S. residents and citizens from engaging in business with Zuleta and his associates and freezes their U.S. assets.
Zuleta has long controlled trafficking routes in western Colombia, near the city of Cali, according to the Treasury Department. He’s also accused of financially supporting the narco-tafficking activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, the group that largely
demobilized amid a 2016 peace deal.
U.S. law enforcement has asked for Zuleta’s extradition for exporting cocaine to the United States from 1985-2011, but that request is being reviewed by Colombia’s Special Peace Judiciary, which was established in the wake of the peace pact.
Among the Treasury Department’s allegations is that Zuleta oversees the production of tons of highly potent marijuana, a strain known as “creepy,” for the international and domestic markets. One of Zuleta’s main clients is La Oficina del Envigado, the powerful gang that was established as the collection and enforcement arm of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.
OFAC also sanctioned four others for their role in Zuleta’s drug trafficking activities, including his brother and business partner, Alonso Zuleta Noscue; a front man and money launderer, Jose Efer Higuita Peralta; his nephew and lab operator, Jose Oscar Zuleta Trochez, and the broker for La Oficina responsible for purchasing the marijuana, Jonathan “Primo” Alvarez Escobar.
“Today we are taking action against a Colombia-based narcotics trafficker tied to elements of the FARC,” Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. “As Pedro Luis Zuleta Noscue continues to supply narcotics to criminal groups such as Colombia’s La Oficina de Envigado, which rely on the sale of these illicit drugs as the financial bedrock of their criminal activities, we remain committed to targeting their financial networks.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 12:43 PM.