U.S. Treasury Blacklists 151 Money Launderers Linked to Mexican Cartels

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has taken a significant step in the fight against illicit finance by placing 151 individuals and entities connected to Mexican drug cartels and terrorist financing on a blacklist. This action, executed through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), blocks assets and restricts access to the U.S. financial system for those designated.

• 64 individuals and 87 companies are now subject to U.S. sanctions.
• Targets include financial operators, business owners, and enterprises alleged to have facilitated money laundering for groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG.
• These designations complement prior FinCEN actions that identified several Mexican banks as primary money-laundering concerns tied to drug trafficking.

This cuts off illicit financial flows is critical to disrupting transnational criminal activity. These sanctions reinforce the importance of robust Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) frameworks, not just in banking, but throughout global financial networks.