This undated photo provided by the U.S. District Attorney shows confiscated drug money. On March 31, the United States Treasury said six people and seven companies used a “network of front companies and shell corporations” to launder money for factions of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The United States Treasury sanctioned six people and seven companies March 31 for alleged money laundering for factions of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, underscoring the group’s new designation as a foreign terrorist organization. The U.S. designation aimed at “targeting the financial operations” of the cartel, which has raked in money by trafficking fentanyl to the United States, came as part of an investigation by Mexican and U.S. government agencies.
The Treasury said those listed used a “network of front companies and shell corporations” to launder money, often using things like currency exchange businesses along the Mexico-U.S. border and larger bulk cash pickups. The move makes it illegal to carry out business transactions with those listed and warns that in addition to civil and criminal penalties, anyone violating the sanctions may also be subject to sanctions themselves.
“Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Bessent added that the government will use “all available tools to target anyone who assists the cartels in furthering their campaign of crime and violence.” It comes just weeks after the U.S. designated the Sinaloa Cartel and seven other criminal groups across Latin America as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Analysts say the terrorism designation would not vastly expand the U.S. government’s power to go after the criminal groups nor take military action in Mexico. But law enforcement officials and other experts say it will provide authorities with more tools to go after the cartels, which in recent years have expanded their enterprises from just drug-trafficking to everything from avocado production to migrant smuggling.