WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Treasury yesterday moved to freeze the assets of alleged Medellin-based drug trafficker Pedro Antonio Bermudez Suaza and ban any US bank or American consumer from doing business with him.

“When Mexican authorities captured Bermudez Suaza, they took down a major conduit of cocaine between the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels,” said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

“Today’s designations expose Bermudez Suaza’s numerous illicitly-obtained assets in his hometown of Medellin, Colombia as well as those in Mexico and Panama,” Szubin said.

OFAC said it also targeted 13 other individuals and 14 entities in Colombia, Mexico and Panama.

Bermudez Suaza was arrested in October 2008 by Mexican authorities on charges related to narcotics trafficking and money laundering, Treasury said.

Bermudez Suaza also faces federal drug trafficking charges in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where he was indicted in September 2008, Treasury said.

According to Treasury the 13 people named include Mexican nationals Felipe Bermudez Duran who is Bermudez Suaza’s son, Julio Cesar Sanchez Martell and Omar Alfredo Jacome Del Valle.