Interesting International Facts: Kingpin Law

Did you know?

In 1999, the US Government enacted a law known as the Kingpin Law. I'd never heard of it until recently. Essentially, the Kingpin Law is aimed at drug traffickers. It targets business interests and restricts access to the US financial system for those identified as drug traffickers. If you're interested, you can read about the designation act here. This summary states: "The Kingpin Act authorizes the President to take these actions [sanctions] when he determines that a foreign person plays a significant role in international narcotics trafficking."

Recently, President Obama gave this designation to a prominent business family in Mozambique. I found out through an email from the embassy. That was the first time I heard of this law. There were three businesses listed and an announcement that American citizens are advised against using these businesses and federal dollars (NGO dollars) are forbidden from being spent with these companies. One of them is the Maputo Shopping Center. There is a movie theatre, restaurants, a grocery store and the best electronics available at this shopping center. Basically, there are things we are looking for that we have only found available there. Since we were advised by our government to sanction these businesses, we have not returned. Which means, living in the developing world, we have further limited our access to goods and services.

I read an email today, that at least one of the businesses, a taxi company in a province we work in, is seriously struggling since the sanctions were put in place. NGO's who had contracts for drivers have looked for these services elsewhere. Losing lucrative NGO contracts was a huge loss to them financially and the taxi business is not expected to make it to the end of the year.

Will this change the actions of the drug trafficker? I don't know. What are your thoughts on sanctions?

I can tell you, from current experience, it does take some effort on this end to comply with the request of my homeland.