This week the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the second wife of alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, as a Tier II Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficking Kingpin (SDNTK). As a result most dealings by U.S. persons with the designated party, Griselda Lopez Perez, are strictly prohibited and all of her assets which come under U.S. jurisdiction are to be blocked. This is the third time in the past five months where OFAC has designated family members of El Chapo. The press release from Treasury concerning this designation only vaguely states that Griselda Lopez Perez materially assists El Chapo’s drug trafficking activities and his efforts to evade law enforcement.

In OFAC’s Flow Chart of Sinaloa Cartel Operatives reference is made to a series of an indictments out of the Northern District of Illinois charging those operatives with various narcotics trafficking violations. Griselda Lopez Perez’s name does not appear on the latest indictment which was returned in January of this year. This does not mean, however, that she has not been indicted. Particularly in narcotics trafficking cases, indictments remain under seal while an investigation is continuing. That means that the indictment is not a matter of public record. That may be unlikely in this case, since a public designation of this individual has been made under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Any level of secrecy the U.S. government would have wanted to keep surrounding their belief that Griselda Lopez Perez was involved in narcotics trafficking activity would have been lost once the designation was made.

A fourth superseding indictment could possibly be issued out of the Northern District of Illinois to include the alleged narcotrafficking activities of El Chapo’s second wife. That’s not a certainty, as many individuals designated as SDNTKs are never indicted, however it’s possible. The good news for El Chapo’s second wife is that the Kingpin designations are the most fluid of all designations, meaning that individuals are placed on the list and removed from the list frequently. Therefore, she can try to contest the SDNTK designation, but will have to show that the designation was erroneous or there was a change in circumstances. I am sure at a minimum OFAC would want to see a separation or a divorce from El Chapo before that happens. As such, it remains to be seen whether love can trump an OFAC Kingpin designation.

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