page_title: Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
section_title: Enforcement of act
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act / Enforcement of act
caption_attribution_description: This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report: &lt;a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-112" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-112&lt;/a&gt; COUNTERNARCOTICS: Treasury Reports Some Results from Designating Drug Kingpins, but Should Improve Information on Agencies' Expenditures
context_page_description: The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, also known as the Kingpin Act, became law by the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000. The U.S. international narcotics trafficking bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives as H.R. 3164 on October 28, 1999. The Kingpin Act legislation passed by a margin of three hundred and eighty-five to twenty-six in the United States House of Representatives on November 2, 1999.
  The H.R. 1555 Act of Congress was passed by the 106th U.S. Congressional session and enacted into law by the 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton on December 3, 1999.
context_section_description: The New York Times has said that the act has been used for the US to pursue dozens of criminal organizations involved in narcotics across the world. It also wrote that, "The act allows the Treasury Department to freeze any assets of the cartels found in United States jurisdictions and to prosecute Americans who help the cartels handle their money."
  On October 7, 2015 the Honduran Banco Continental was the first time the act had been used against a bank outside the United States.
  Issuance of a Finding of Violation to BBVA Compass. On 7/27/2016, the OFAC issued a Finding of Violation to Compass Bank, which uses the trade name BBVA Compass ("Compass"), for violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 598 (FNKSR).  Due to a technical error with certain filtering software, Compass unknowingly maintained accounts on behalf of two individuals on OFAC's List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the "SDN List").  Although OFAC found Compass to be technically in violation, no transactions occurred from the accounts during the time the individuals were on the SDN list.
caption: Kingpin Act designations, 2000–2019
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