Gov't targets 2 key cartel drug lords

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The federal government Wednesday prohibited Americans from doing business with two key operatives in the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said that in addition to barring Damaso Lopez Nunez, a top Sinaloa drug-trafficking cartel lieutenant, and Ines Coronel Barreras, the father-in-law of Sinaloa drug lord Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman Loera, from conducting any business in the United States, any assets under U.S. jurisdiction the men may own would be frozen.

The government's action was taken under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and with the assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Treasury Department announced.

Lopez Nunez, alias "El Licenciado," helped Guzman Loera escape from a Mexican federal prison in 2001. The Sinaloa cartel is responsible for multiple-ton shipments of drugs from Mexico into the United States, the Treasury Department said.

Coronel Barreras was named for his involvement in Guzman Loera's narcotics trafficking activities. Guzman Loera and the Sinaloa cartel are significant foreign narcotics traffickers under the Kingpin Act, the government said.