Treasury Issues Alert on Cartel Fuel Smuggling and Tax Evasion Schemes on the U.S. Southern Border.
“WASHINGTON—Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced multiple actions combatting fuel smuggling schemes linked to Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a violent drug cartel designated under both counternarcotics and counterterrorism authorities.
“OFAC has sanctioned two Mexican nationals and nine entities tied to a CJNG-linked fuel theft scheme—involving cross-border smuggling, falsified customs documents, and shell companies—to evade Mexican taxes while generating tens of millions of dollars annually for the cartel. In addition, FinCEN issued a supplemental Alert providing additional guidance on financial typologies and red flags indicative of CJNG and other Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) smuggling fuel from the United States into Mexico in schemes involving Mexican tax evasion.”
“In Mexico, the cartels use their illicit profits from the black market fuel sales to make cash payments to Mexican political campaigns and media outlets to help elect corrupt Mexican politicians willing to assist the cartels control key administrative positions in the government, which facilitates fuel smuggling operations and access to state contracts to launder the illicit profits from these schemes and other criminal activities.”
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