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Mexico's partial reversal of 2010 limits on U.S. dollar deposits will make it easier for narcotics traffickers to launder drug proceeds through Mexican banks, according to current and former investigators.
The identification of suspicious transactions by financial institutions offers an important means of fighting human trafficking, the U.S. State Department said in a report Friday.
In response to Mexico's restrictions on U.S. dollar deposits, drug traffickers have turned to funneling dirty money through accounts opened for seemingly legitimate businesses, American officials warned Wednesday.
When the DOJ accused 14 in June of washing Mexican cartel money via a horse racing operation, it signified a rare feat in the drug war: a prosecution built solely on money laundering charges. Despite years of trying to choke the cash networks of Mexicans drug gangs, such cases remain the exception.
Exemptions for Mexican hotels and other businesses from Mexico's limits on U.S. dollar deposits can be readily exploited by narco-traffickers and money launderers, say compliance professionals.
It seems incongruous: even as Mexico's problems with drug trafficking, money laundering and violence have worsened in unprecedented ways, the Latin American economy's ability to attract foreign investors has grown.
Western Union will pay $94 million to resolve claims by the Arizona Attorney General's office that the company wasn't doing enough to combat Mexican money launderers and human traffickers.
Arizona investigators are free to seize Western Union money transfers believed to be tied to human smuggling operations, even when the transfers originated from other states, a state court said.
