FinCEN Flags $312B In Border Cartel Cash; Treasury Sanctions Mexican Banks In China Fentanyl Pipeline

FinCEN warned financial institutions about Chinese money-laundering networks working with Mexican drug cartels to move large sums of cash. Investigators reviewed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act reports from 2020–2024 and identified about $312 billion in suspicious transactions tied to these networks. Treasury recently sanctioned two Mexican banks and a brokerage firm accused of laundering cartel proceeds and funneling money into China for fentanyl precursors. Officials say currency controls in Mexico and China facilitate schemes in which Chinese groups buy U.S. dollars from cartels and then resell them to entities trying to evade China’s cash-control rules. Authorities reported the networks use U.S.-based Chinese nationals to make regular unexplained cash deposits and warned banks to watch for large deposits by individuals without plausible income sources.