US offers $ 5 million for Venezuelan businessman Samark López

The head of US diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, accused the Venezuelan businessman of "participating in transnational organized crime."

The United States offered this Thursday, October 8, up to 5 million dollars for a Venezuelan businessman linked to the Venezuelan government, adding a new member to the rewards program for drug trafficking related to Venezuela, which already includes the president himself.

"Today the United States Department of State announces a reward of up to $ 5 million for information leading to the arrest and / or conviction of the Venezuelan citizen Samark José López Bello for participating in transnational organized crime," said the head of diplomacy. American Mike Pompeo in a statement.

He pointed out that the reward for López Bello is related to that of 10 million dollars for the former Venezuelan Vice President and current Minister of Oil, Tareck El Aissami, and that of $ 5 million for the national superintendent of cryptocurrencies of the Venezuelan Government, Joselit de la Trinidad Ramírez Camacho, announced in March and June, respectively.

López Bello, 46, is accused of being a businessman linked to El Aissami.

Both were included in February 2017 in the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) of the Treasury "for playing a significant role in international drug trafficking," according to official documents.

In March 2019, they were indicted in a New York court for violating those sanctions by doing business with US individuals and entities, in particular to organize private jet flights to or from Venezuela, Turkey and Russia.

On March 26, López Bello was included in the mega-process of the Department of Justice against President Nicolás Maduro and 14 other Venezuelan officials and former officials, in which federal prosecutors from New York, Washington DC and Miami accused them of “narco-terrorism”, corruption, drug trafficking, among other charges. That day the United States announced a $ 15 million reward for Maduro.

López Bello was already on the list of the most wanted of the United States Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) since August 2019, where he appears with the alias Samark López Delgado, of occupation “financial facilitator”. There it is noted that his last known whereabouts were in Miami.

Last month, López Bello was mentioned in the FinCEN Archives, an investigation that alleges that large international banks allowed transactions of huge sums of money for 20 years. It appears under the label of corruption for at least two transactions carried out between 2013 and 2016 by two banks for 1.4 million dollars.

Since January 2019, the United States has led international pressure to promote the departure from power of Maduro, whose re-election in May 2018 it considers fraudulent and to whom it attributes generalized corruption and serious human rights abuses.