FRANK SESNO, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government has a new dirty dozen: some of the worst alleged international drug kingpins out there, half of them operate right next door, in Mexico; two each operate in Burma, St. Kitts and Nigeria. Colombia is not represented because the government keeps a separate list for that country. Under a new law, the government can freeze the U.S. assets of those on the list and companies associated with them. It would also bar Americans from doing business with those companies. Now, what is the likely impact of all this on the drug trade itself? Well, CNN Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas joins us now with an answer to that question -- Pierre.</s>PIERRE THOMAS, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Frank, the impact on the drug trade is that what they will do is they will develop this list and they will look for associates of these particular drug kingpins. And from that they will develop companies and will say to those companies, you can no longer do business in the U.S., no longer have any U.S. international institutions involved. The significance of this list is that six of the 12 are from Mexico. It shows the growing dominance of the Mexicans in the international drug trade. And also it's a very prickly issue because every year, Mexican certification as a drug-fighting country is a very difficult issue on Capitol Hill.</s>SESNO: Pierre, does it effect though, the hunt for these suspects in the degree, quality of cooperation with the countries where they are staying?</s>THOMAS: Not really, Frank, these people are -- most of them have already been indicted, Ariano Felix, Ramon Ariano Felix, is a drug lord from Mexico. He is a person already indicted on the FBI's top ten most wanted list, so these people are known. Again, the major impact is freezing their assets and barring U.S. companies from doing any kind of business with their associates.</s>SESNO: Pierre Thomas, thanks.
New Law Allows Government to Freeze Assets of Names on Drug Kingpin List