mx Mexico

New Documents

The Federal Trade Commission entered into a memorandum of understanding with its counterparts in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, to facilitate anti-fraud efforts.

Mexican military and national guard forces, in coordination with the National Intelligence Fusion Center, detained José N., a suspected logistical operator of the Sinaloa cartel drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García in Culiacán, Mexico.

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Enforcement Actions

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Important Facts

  • The U.S. State Department labels Mexico as a major money laundering country. Illicit actors launder billions of dollars of drug trafficking proceeds through the Mexican financial system annually. Illicit drug proceeds leaving the United States are the principal sources of funds laundered through the Mexican financial system. Corruption, bulk cash smuggling, kidnapping, extortion, fuel theft, intellectual property rights violations, fraud, human smuggling, and trafficking in persons and firearms serve as sources of additional funds laundered through Mexico. Money laundering through the luxury real estate sector remains a concern, especially as a vehicle for laundering the proceeds of public corruption. Popular laundering methods include: the use of dollar-denominated illicit proceeds to purchase retail items for export and resale in Mexico or the U.S. and routing the revenues from the sales to transnational criminal organizations; investment in financial and real estate assets such as property and luxury items, particularly with respect to proceeds laundered due to public corruption; structure deposits where cash deposits into accounts in the U.S. are funneled into a single account and wire to Mexico; and use of unlicensed exchange houses to funnel narcotics-related proceeds. A legislation passed in 2019 expands predicate offenses of money laundering and makes asset forfeiture proceedings independent from any related criminal proceeding. In 2020, federal prosecutors filed the country's first three asset forfeiture complaints.
-Source: 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)

Rankings

FATF i | 2013

Technical Effectiveness
Compliant : 10 High : 0
Largely Compliant : 24 Substantial : 4
Partially Compliant : 5 Moderate : 4
Non-Compliant : 1 Low : 3

Mexico's technical compliance was re-rated in a June 6, 2023 follow-up report

BASEL i

Rank : 50/110
Score : 5.09/10

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL i

Rank : 124/179
Score : 31/100

Tax Justice Network i

Rank : 80/133
Score : 53/100