Colombian soccer team off sanctions list

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday sanctions were lifted from the Colombian professional soccer team America de Cali.

The team was put on the sanctions list in 1999 because it was owned by Colombian drug cartel leaders Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and thus subject to the blocking of assets and financial transactions in the United States, Treasury Department statement said.

The recent completion by new corporate owners of "a transparent process of restructuring" demonstrated "America de Cali has cut its ties with the designated parties, allowing Treasury to proceed with removing the team" from the sanctions list, the statement said.