Colombia to extradite Panama drug-money suspect to US
AFP on May 7, 2016, 4:41 am
Bogota (AFP) - Colombia will extradite a leader of a prominent Panama business family to the United States where he is charged with laundering money for ruthless drug gangs, authorities said Friday.
Police branded the suspect, Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum, the most-wanted money launderer in the world.
They arrested the 44-year-old at Bogota's airport upon arrival from Panama, Colombian officials said, after US authorities blacklisted him and various associates.
"Procedures have been launched via the state prosecution service to carry out the protocol to extradite him to the United States," the vice head of the Colombian police's drug squad, Ricardo Alarcon, told a news conference.
A court in Florida has charged Waked on money laundering and bank fraud charges, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said.
His family runs at least 68 companies in various countries, including activities such as luxury goods, duty-free shops, real estate and newspapers.
The US Treasury Department said Thursday it had put their business on a sanctions list, classing it as a major drug money laundering organization.
The move targeted businesses including the Grupo Wisa and La Riviera luxury goods groups, as well as the Balboa Bank and Trust and two top newspapers.
The Treasury named Waked Hatum and Abdul Mohamed Waked Fares, 66, as co-leaders of the "Waked Money Laundering Organization."
It said they used "trade-based money-laundering schemes, such as false commercial invoicing; bulk cash smuggling; and other money laundering methods, to launder drug proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers and their organizations."
The sanctions lock them out of doing business with Americans and freeze their US assets.
- Pressure on Panama -
Waked Hatum is a national of Panama, Colombia and Lebanon. Waked Fares is a national of Spain, Colombia and Panama.
Panama was in the spotlight over suspect finance operations after the Panama Papers tax evasion scandal. Leaked documents revealed how a law firm based in the country helped the wealthy stash their assets in offshore firms.
Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela moved to calm concerns about the impact of the Waked affair on the country's finance sector, after authorities seized control of Balboa Bank.
He said the country's state prosecutors were investigating.
"Our banking and stock regulators have taken immediate measures to protect the integrity of our stock market and of account holders," Varela said in a statement Friday.
DEA Deputy Administrator Jack Riley said in a statement: "Nidal Waked has a long history of money laundering on behalf of some of the world's most ruthless and sophisticated drug trafficking and criminal networks."
The arrest and sanctions were "a crippling blow to his criminal regime," Riley said.
The United States named six other suspects accused of participating in the money-laundering operations, including three brothers of Waked Hatum and a son of Waked Fares.
- Well-known family -
The Waked family is well-known for its La Riviera chain of duty free shops and retail makeup and perfume stores stretching from Mexico to Uruguay.
The Colombian police said Waked Hatum was accused of laundering drug money by investing it in his duty-free shops in airports.
The family also operates boutiques for top European brands such as Mango, Burberry and YSL. It has developed a new $350 million luxury shopping, residential and hotel complex, Soho Panama, in downtown Panama City, which was to include a Ritz Carlton hotel.
According to an interview with Waked Fares in Travel Markets Insider magazine last year, the group employs more than 5,500 people in the region.
Varela said his government was working to "protect the jobs of Panamanians affected by this affair."
Panama Attorney General Kenia Porcell Diaz said the government was cooperating with US authorities "to vigorously attack criminal activity in Panama so that the rule of law prevails."
