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Summary
Samark Jose Lopez, a 45-year-old Venezuelan citizen, has been the subject of a months-long manhunt following the takedown of a complex international sanctions evasion and money laundering operation. In February 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Lopez and his co-conspirator, Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Kingpin Act for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. Lopez provided material assistance and financial support in support of the international narcotics trafficking activities of, and acting for or on behalf of, Maddah. For more than two years, Lopez and others defrauded the U.S. government by engaging in transactions prohibited by the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and related regulations, and evading sanctions imposed by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act and related regulations.