U.S. Treasury takes 60 Colombians off drug list

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sixty Colombians who had been designated as narcotics traffickers but have cut ties with the Cali drug cartel will be allowed to conduct business in the United States, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday.

The 60 "have cut ties with the Rodriguez Orejuela narcotics trafficking organization and have instead cooperated with the Colombian authorities," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, once leaders of the Cali drug cartel, are serving prison sentences in the United States after pleading guilty to federal narcotics trafficking and money laundering charges in September 2006.

The 60 are employees of Copservir, a company that operated a retail drugstore chain before the Colombian government seized control of its operations in September 2004, the Treasury said.

(Reporting by Nancy Waitz; editing by Mohammad Zargham)