US sanctions drug traffickers who shipped tons of cocaine in airplanes and submarines

(AFP) The United States on Thursday sanctioned two Colombians and four Guyanese for trafficking tons of cocaine from South America to the United States, Europe and the Caribbean via Guyana in narco-submarines and planes, the Treasury Department said.

According to Washington, Guyana has for decades served as a "transshipment point for the movement of drugs" and Mexican cartels operate in the area.

Guyana's proximity to the Caribbean and "alleged corruption at its ports and borders" allows planes and narco-submarines to transit "undetected," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Drug traffickers exploit the rivers and jungles of South America by transporting large quantities of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela through Guyana and Suriname," it added.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two Colombians, Yeison Andres Sanchez Vallejo and Manuel Salazar Gutierrez, whom it accuses of "overseeing clandestine runways used to transport tons of cocaine by air from Colombia to Guyana."

It also imposed sanctions on Guyanese Paul Daby Jr. and Randolph Duncan, members of the country's main drug trafficking network, as well as Mark Cromwell, a former police officer, and Himnauth Sawh, who guaranteed passage "to Colombian and Venezuelan traffickers."

As a result of the sanctions, all assets and holdings of those sanctioned that are in the United States or held or controlled by Americans are blocked.