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Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 01:46 AM Aug 2020

Guatemalan ex-economy minister charged with laundering drugs money


6 August 2020



GETTY IMAGES

Acisclo Valladres Urruela has been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering

Prosecutors in the United States have charged a former Guatemalan minister with laundering millions of dollars in drug money.

Acisclo Valladares Urruela, 44, was economy minister in the government of President Jimmy Morales, who governed from 2016 to 2020.

. . .

Mr Valladares' father, who is the Guatemalan ambassador to London, said the accusations were baseless and part of a smear campaign by drug dealers.

Acisclo Valladares Molina said a drug trafficker was setting up his son in revenge for the role the now-ambassador played when he was prosecutor-general of Guatemala in the 1990s in paving the way for the extradition of drug smugglers to the US.

"All the extraditions of drug traffickers are based on the legal opinion I issued as Prosecutor-General of the Nation (1994-1998). Sufficient reason for revenge," Mr Valladares Molina tweeted in Spanish.

The whereabouts of Mr Valladares junior are not known.

South Florida federal prosecutors have charged Mr Valladares Urruela with "helping to launder close to $10 million of illegal drug proceeds and other ill-gotten money". The prosecutors allege that "during a four-year conspiracy, Valladares Urruela enabled the illegal drug trade by creating a demand for untraceable cash, cash that Valladares Urruela used to bribe corrupt Guatemalan politicians".

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53678753
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