The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on three Mexico-based financial institutions, accusing them of laundering millions of dollars for cartels and facilitating payments for the production of fentanyl.
The sanctions, announced on Wednesday, target CIBanco, Intercam Banco, and brokerage Vector Casa de Bolsa. The banks are accused of playing a “long-standing and vital role” in money laundering for Mexican-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said that the measures would effectively cut off the bank branches from doing business with US financial institutions, but it remains unclear how far-reaching the effects will be. The Treasury Department did not name which US institutions were implicated in transactions with the sanctioned banks.
The three financial institutions have been accused of facilitating millions of dollars in transactions for various cartels, including the Jalisco New Generation, Beltran Leyva, and Gulf cartels. Vector Casa de Bolsa was accused of facilitating money laundering for the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, including payments for fentanyl chemicals worth over $1 million.
The Treasury Department estimates that transactions exceeding $40 million were passed through Vector Casa de Bolsa, which was also used by the Sinaloa Cartel to send bribes to former Mexican Security Secretary Genaro García Luna. García Luna was sentenced to 38 years in prison by a New York court for corruption charges.
Intercam Banco faced similar charges, with the Treasury Department accusing it of passing through transfers worth $1.5 million in payments for chemicals used to produce fentanyl from China.
The sanctions are part of an ongoing effort by US and Mexican authorities to crack down on Mexican cartels that traffic fentanyl. The Trump administration has declared many of these cartels Foreign Terrorist Organizations and has sanctioned 31 individuals since taking office as part of the effort.
Despite movement of the drug along the border and overdoses within the US already being on the decline, the Trump administration has announced it is cracking down on Mexican cartels and fentanyl trafficking.
Source: AP News
