Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act

Not to be confused with the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute also known as the Kingpin Statute.
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
Great Seal of the United States
Other short titles
  • Department of Energy Sensitive Country Foreign Visitors Moratorium Act
  • International Narcotics Trafficking Act
  • Kingpin Act
Long titleAn Act to provide for the imposition of economic sanctions on certain foreign persons engaging in, or otherwise involved in, international narcotics trafficking.
Acronyms (colloquial)FNKDA
NicknamesIntelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000
Enacted bythe 106th United States Congress
EffectiveDecember 3, 1999
Citations
Public law106-120
Statutes at Large113 Stat. 1606 aka 113 Stat. 1626
Codification
Titles amended21 U.S.C.: Food and Drugs
U.S.C. sections created21 U.S.C. ch. 24 § 1901 et seq.
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R. 1555 by Porter Goss (R–FL) on April 26, 1999
  • Committee consideration by House Intelligence (Permanent Select), House Armed Services
  • Passed the House on May 13, 1999 (passed voice vote)
  • Passed the Senate on July 21, 1999 (passed voice vote)
  • Reported by the joint conference committee on November 5, 1999; agreed to by the House on November 9, 1999 (agreed voice vote) and by the Senate on November 19, 1999 (agreed voice vote)
  • Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 3, 1999

The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, better known as the Kingpin Act, is landmark federal legislation in the United States intended to address international narcotics trafficking by imposing United States sanctions on foreign persons and entities involved in the drug trade.

The Act allows the President of the United States and United States Secretary of the Treasury to publicly identify "significant foreign narcotics traffickers" and to freeze their assets. The Act also prohibits any "United States person" from conducting business with any designated foreign narcotics traffickers, and provides for both civil penalties and criminal prosecution for violations.

The work of enforcing the Act has been delegated to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), overseen by United States Congress and advised by several United States federal executive departments, the United States Intelligence Community, and federal law enforcement agencies.

The creation of the Kingpin Act followed President Bill Clinton's use of Executive Order 12978 to target and isolate members of the Cali Cartel of Colombia beginning in 1995. Paul Coverdell and Porter Goss championed the legislation with the support of Clinton in 1999. Since then, the President and Treasury have invoked the Kingpin Act to target a variety of foreign drug trafficking organizations.[1][2][3][4]

  1. ^ Clinton, William J. (October 21, 1995). "Executive Order 12978: Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers". Internet Archive. Washington, D.C.: Homeland Security Digital Library.
  2. ^ "Overview of Sanctions" (PDF). treasury.gov. United States Department of the Treasury. 18 July 2014. pp. 3–7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 Sep 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act." Pub. L. 106–120 (text) (PDF), H.R. 1555, 113 Stat. 1626, enacted December 3, 1999
  4. ^ Rosen, Liana W. (12 June 2018). "International narcotics trafficking sanctions: an overview". CRS reports. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. OCLC 1139346172. Retrieved 30 March 2022.