WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced a broadside of sanctions against four far-flung criminal cartels on Monday, part of what it said is a coordinated strategy to fight international underworld factions that could harm U.S. interests or security.
An executive order signed by President Barack Obama outlined a regime of harsh sanctions against so-called transnational criminal groups, blocking any American property interests and freezing their assets, authorizing financial sanctions against anyone aiding them and barring their members from entering the United States.
The order, signed Sunday, authorizes new sanctions against criminal cartels in Mexico, Japan, Italy and Eastern Europe: Los Zetas, a Mexican drug ring linked to multiple murders; the Yakuza, Japan’s widespread mob army; the Camorra, a crime network based in southern Italy; and the Brothers’ Circle, an Eastern European criminal group operating worldwide.
The new moves come as the administration is animating a long-scattered effort to confront global crime groups suspected of transporting drugs and weapons and enabling terrorist groups. While the U.S. war against terrorist networks has been a clear foreign policy priority since the Sept. 11 attacks, its handling of “transnational” crime groups has been uneven at times and fragmented among federal agencies.
Under the new strategy, the Justice Department and the FBI appear to have heightened roles in the government’s effort to tackle transnational threats. The National Security Council has long been the lead agency in targeting transnational threats during the Clinton and Bush administrations and will retain the role of helping to oversee combined law enforcement, intelligence and military agencies.
