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Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Mexico's Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Targeted By U.S. Kingpin Act

U.S. Targets Mexico's Most-Wanted Drug Lord
Reuters
FILE - In this June 10, 1993 file photo, Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias "El Chapo Guzman," is shown to the press after his arrest at the high security prison of Almoloya de Juarez, outskirts of Mexico City. Mexican federal police nearly nabbed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos in late February, 2012, barely a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same southern Baja peninsula resort town. Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, Mexico's assistant attorney general in charge of organized crime investigations, confirmed on Sunday, March 11, 2012, that there was a near miss in the government's efforts to arrest one of the world's top fugitives since he escaped prison in a laundry truck in 2001. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)
FILE - In this June 10, 1993 file photo, Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias "El Chapo Guzman," is shown to the press after his arrest at the high security prison of Almoloya de Juarez, outskirts of Mexico City. Mexican federal police nearly nabbed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos in late February, 2012, barely a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same southern Baja peninsula resort town. Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, Mexico's assistant attorney general in charge of organized crime investigations, confirmed on Sunday, March 11, 2012, that there was a near miss in the government's efforts to arrest one of the world's top fugitives since he escaped prison in a laundry truck in 2001. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday targeted three Belize-based associates of Mexico's most-wanted man, cocaine king Joaquin Guzman, by freezing their U.S. assets as well as those of five of his companies including a banana farm, grocery store and marina.

The U.S. Treasury accused John Zabaneh, his nephew Dion Zabaneh and Daniel Moreno of being key associates of Guzman, who is the head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. Americans and U.S. companies are now prohibited from doing business with the three Belize men and the five companies controlled by Zabaneh and Moreno.

Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel have been identified by the United States as significant foreign narcotics traffickers under the U.S. Kingpin Act.

The companies blacklisted on Tuesday are Mayan King, Mid-South Investments, Crown Paradise Enterprises, Belize Chemicals and D's Supermarket Company.

Guzman, nicknamed "El Chapo," escaped a Mexican prison in a laundry cart in 2001 to become the country's most high profile trafficker.

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