The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today identified 11 individuals and 16 companies that are part of the financial and commercial network of designated significant foreign narcotics trafficker Wei Hsueh-kang and the United Wa State Army (UWSA). Wei and the UWSA's opium trafficking plagues the society and economy of Southeast Asia. We're acting to protect the U.S. financial sector from this network's tainted drug profits, as well as ensure Wei and his cohorts can't use the American financial system to move or launder their opium proceeds, said Robert Werner, OFAC Director. Wei Hsueh-kang (Wei) was designated as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act on June 1, 2000. Wei serves as a senior commander of the UWSA, which was subsequently designated as a drug kingpin on May 29, 2003. Wei is the subject of a U.S. federal indictment, unsealed in January 2005, from the Eastern District of New York on narcotics-related charges. The UWSA, with as many as 20,000 armed fighters located in Burma, is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia and was responsible for the production of more than 180 metric tons of opium in 2004. They act for or on behalf of Wei and the UWSA in various front companies, as well as materially assist in their narcotics trafficking activities. Several relatives of Warin and Winai are among those designated today. The 16 companies named, all of which are located in Thailand, were designated for their role in the financial network of Warin, Winai, Wei and the UWSA. Many of the designated companies have been raided in the past by Thai authorities in connection with an investigation into Wei's money laundering network.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/js3009

2003-06-02

US

Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 598

OFAC-horizontal

Drugs

Blocking Property

The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 598 (FNKSR), implement the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (21 U.S.C. 1901–1908), which provides authority for the application of sanctions to significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations operating worldwide.

SDN