The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced an enforcement operation along the southwest border targeting more than 100 money service businesses (MSBs). The effort is the latest operation aimed at cutting off financial tools used by drug cartels.
Treasury officials revealed that MSBs are entities that are not banks but provide money transfer, wire, exchange, and other cash-based services; a type of business that, since it primarily deals with cash, provides a certain anonymity for cartels to move or launder funds.
As part of their operations, officials reviewed more than one million Currency Transaction Reports and 87,000 suspicious activity reports, all of which financial businesses are required by law to report. For the operation, Treasury and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) used a series of high-tech tools to sort through large volumes of data and identify leads for law enforcement.
In targeting those businesses, Treasury officials issued six notices of investigation, dozens of examination referrals to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), and more than 50 compliance letters to address vulnerabilities to money laundering. The Department of the Treasury claimed it was targeting businesses that appeared to be violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
“At President Trump’s direction, the Treasury Department is utilizing all tools to stop terrorist cartels, drug traffickers, and human smugglers,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a prepared statement provided to Breitbart Texas. “This sweeping operation will help root out potential cartel-related money laundering from the U.S. financial system.”
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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