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The US Treasury accused three Mexican financial institutions on Wednesday of facilitating payments to China for fentanyl trafficking, as President Donald Trump intensifies a crackdown on illicit opioids.
The Treasury declared Mexican firms CIBanco, Intercam Banco and Vector Casa de Bolsa as being “of primary money laundering concern”, a finding that allows it to impose strict conditions on their access to the US financial system. They were hit as part of the first actions carried out by the Treasury’s financial crimes unit under new authorities created by recent anti-fentanyl legislation.
The Treasury said the three firms had played a “long-standing and vital role” in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexican cartels and facilitating payments to procure precursor chemicals for fentanyl production.
“The actions we have taken today will effectively cut off three Mexican based financial institutions — CI Banco, Intercam and Vector — from doing business with US financial institutions,” deputy Treasury secretary Michael Faulkender said.
Wednesday’s sanctions marked the first actions taken by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which was signed into law last year, giving the agency new authorities to crack down on opioid smuggling. Fentanyl, a low-cost synthetic painkiller, has fuelled the opioid crisis in the US over the past decade and is the leading cause of overdose deaths.
The news comes as Trump steps up a US push against drug trafficking from Mexico, piling pressure on left-wing President Claudia Sheinbaum. The founder of Vector Casa de Bolsa is Alfonso Romo, who for two years ran the office of Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. There is no accusation of wrongdoing by Romo or the former president.
“This is a big hit into the credibility of the Mexican financial system,” said Alvaro Vértiz, head of Latin America at Washington-based advisory consultancy DGA Group. It also showed “the US will do whatever it takes to battle fentanyl trafficking and there is going to be no exceptions”, he added.
All three institutions — two banks and a brokerage — are small but well-known players in Mexico’s financial sector, managing $7bn, $4bn and $11bn in assets, respectively.
CIBanco and Intercam discussed with or provided services to the now-dominant Jalisco New Generation cartel, while Vector helped a Sinaloa cartel mule launder $2mn from the US to Mexico, the Treasury orders alleged.
CIBanco and Intercam did not respond to requests for comment. Vector said in a statement that it “categorically rejects” any allegation against its integrity, and that the cited transactions were with legitimate companies.
Several senior industry executives said the news would likely push all of Mexico’s financial institutions to increase “know your customer” and anti-money laundering scrutiny.
Sheinbaum has won some praise from US officials for improving co-operation on security matters, with her security minister stepping up arrests, seizures and extraditions.
But in response to Wednesday’s news, Mexico’s finance ministry said it had not been provided proof of the accusations.
“If there is clear information that proves illicit activity by these three financial institutions, we will act with the full force of the law, but to date we don’t have any information like that,” the ministry said in a statement.
The broader US-Mexico relationship has been tense as Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on a wide range of goods and the administration has raised the possibility of unilateral military action against drug cartels. The US declared six cartels as terrorist organisations in his first weeks in office, and he has sent a former army green beret to be his ambassador in Mexico City.
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