The U.S. Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on three financial institutions in Mexico it says were used to launder millions of dollars for cartels, in a move officials say would block certain money transfers between them and American financial i.
The U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions Wednesday on three Mexico-based financial institutions it said were used to launder millions of dollars for cartels, in a move officials say would block certain money transfers between the sanctioned banks and U.S. banks.
The orders issued on the banks CIBanco and Intercam Banco, as well as brokerage Vector Casa de Bolsa, are part of an ongoing push by U.S. and Mexican authorities under pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump to crack down on Mexican cartels that traffic fentanyl.
The banks “have collectively played a long-standing and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told reporters on Wednesday.
