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| Cash seized by Mexican authorities |
According to Teodoro Briseño Maldonado, Director of Money
Laundering Prevention and Terrorism Financing for the Mexican financial
services firm TM Sourcing, data from Mexico’s Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF), or “Financial
Intelligence Unit” indicate that the country launders anywhere from $10 billion
to $50 billion annually.
Given that the oft-quoted number is $10 billion, to have Mr.
Briseño Maldonado, who also works for Mexico’s National Banking Services
Commission (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, or “CNBV”), come out with
an estimate that tops out at $50 billion is alarming.
Speaking at the 16th Convention of the National Association
of Exchange Centres and Money Transfer (Convención de la Asociación Nacional de
Centros Cambiarios y Transmisiones de Dinero), Briseño Maldonado said that
while the Mexican government frequently quotes the $10 billion number, he personally
believes that FIU data supports an amount approaching the $50 billion mark.
Mexico has a new money laundering law that went into effect in
July. The law would increase reporting requirements and make cash transactions
of over $40,000 illegal. The idea is to target high-cash transfer areas of the economy
like real estate, automobile sales, jewelry, gaming, and art. However, it has
been criticized by some in the business sector as overly bureaucratic, while
also punitive to other sectors that often have high-value cash transactions,
such as agriculture.
For its part, the U.S. State Department estimates that between $19 billion and $29 billion is sent by drug
traffickers from the US to Mexico each year.
(TE Wilson is the author of Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel.)
(TE Wilson is the author of Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel.)
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