By now you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that the U.S. government has become increasingly more aggressive in its use of economic sanctions to fight alleged drug traffickers around the world. For the last year I have written on the increasing number of designations under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) and how the United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been designating individuals and entities under this sanctions program left and right.

Well today was no exception. OFAC has designated a whopping 31 individuals and 47 entities as Foreign Narcotics Kingpins. That is 78 new Kingpins designees on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List! According to this press release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury these designations place some of the most wanted narcotics traffickers in Columbia onto the SDN List. Moreover, Treasury alleges that these designees are partnered with the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), a narco-terrorist organization identified by the President as a kingpin pursuant to the Kingpin Act in 2003.

However, OFAC was not just busy designating SDNs today, they also removed some names from the SDN list as well. While OFAC designated 78 individuals and entities today they also removed two individuals and three entities, none of which were originally designated under the Kingpin Act.

Why so many designations and so few removals? There are a couple of reasons. First, OFAC is obviously more geared towards designating as opposed to removing persons from the SDN list. Their job after all is to enforce and administer various sanctions programs; not constantly reviewing their own actions. Second, and perhaps more important, is that there is a lack of understanding on how to challenge these designations both amongst those who are designated and amongst the attorneys they hire to challenge the designation. I have seen so many attorneys representing SDNs write letters to the United Nations asking for removal or write letters to the U.S. State Department requesting a removal. This course of action is an absolute waste of time.

There are very clear administrative procedures set forth in the regulations which must be followed in order to contest a designation under an OFAC administered sanction program. If you find yourself in the position of having been designated and placed on the SDN list, contact a lawyer who is familiar with what these administrative procedures are and how they work. Taking other approaches to seek a removal ultimately lead to frustration and a waste of time.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC litigation. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 at 202-351-6161 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.