The United States government has on Friday announced criminal charges levelled against one of the top officials in embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime for US sanctions violation which was imposed two years ago, when the official was accused of drug trafficking.
According to Reuters news reports, Venezuela’s industry ministerTareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah was accused of violating sanctions in February 2017 by hiring American companies in order to provide private jet services.
An El Aissami associate, Venezuelan businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, sanctioned by the US treasury department’s office of foreign assets control, was also criminally charged by the government.
A lawyer for El Aissami could not immediately be located. Lopez Bello’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both El Aissami and Lopez were charged with five counts of the circumventing sanctions and drug trafficking violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, targets people posing threat to the US foreign policy and economic interest.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan said, “Enforcement of these sanctions is critical to the national security interests of the U.S..”
The case is U.S. v. El Aissami et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-cr-00144