The US government recently sanctioned three Mexican financial institutions for allegedly laundered drug money, adding to a series of American actions that have set out the bilateral crime fight with Mexico.
On June 25, the Financial Application Financial Application Network of the US Treasury Department (Fincen) sanctioned two major Mexican banks and a brokerage house to whiten money for Mexican criminal organizations and help buy fentanyl precursors from China.
These sanctions represent the first actions of Fincen under the Fentanyl sanctions law and the Repel fentanyl. The latter dressed the US Treasury for the first time to sanction foreign persons or the entities involved in money laundering specifically linked to opioid trafficking, including fentanyl.
In a press release, the US Treasury Accused Terminco, Interam and Vector Casa de Bolsa to make dozens of small -scale financial transfers on several years in the name of the new generation of Jalisco Cartel (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – Cjng), THE Sinaloa cartelTHE Gulf carteland the Beltrán Leyva organization (Blo) – three of which have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the administration of American president Donald Trump.
Fincen orders cite the roles of entities in the treatment of payments for chemical precursors from China, which would have used to produce fentanyl.
The three institutions have published public statements refusing any link with money laundering in the name of Mexican criminal groups.
Although Fincen said that the American order had been made in coordination with the Mexican government, President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the sanctions the day after.
See also: Can the president of Mexico appease Trump with anti-crime repression?
She said that the transactions reported by Fincen involved Mexican and Chinese companies “legally established”, and that the data highlighted transfers – and not proof of money laundering.
The Ministry of Finance of Mexico (Secretary of Hacienda y Crédito Público) has since launched an investigation into the three institutions. In a statement, the ministry said that he had asked evidence to link financial companies to all illegal activities, but that “No evidence has been received. “”
An analysis of insightful crime
American sanctions represent another unilateral attempt in the United States to repress organized transnational crime and fentanyl traffic, which lead the bilateral relationship.
“These types of actions feed an asymmetry and tax story, Mexico being treated more as a suspected territory than a strategic partner,” said Eunice Rendón security analyst. “This has an immediate impact on the will of local authorities, financial institutions and justice system actors to actively cooperate with cross -border surveys.”
In the short term, targeting financial institutions is directly or indirectly involved in illicit operations could dissuade or disrupt certain organized crime flows. Once a financial institution is described as “primary concern of money laundering”, it is, in practice, actually cut off from the global financial system.
However, Rendón said that these actions undermine the Mexican government’s ability to investigate, prevent and sanction these activities within the framework of its legal framework. “By applying these tools without a joint assessment or consultation process, the United States assumes a punitive role which undermines the principle of shared responsibility – a fundamental pillar of the current binational strategy.”
See also: It is unlikely that the United States will be more punitive in slowing fentanyl trafficking
Fincen sanctions follow a series of unilateral American actions aimed at dismantling Mexican criminal organizations. In July 2024, the American authorities decree Ismael Zambada García, alias “El MayoOne of the founding figures of the Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, spouse of the group Chapitos faction. While the United States welcomed arrests as a hollow victory to counter cross-border smuggling, the operation quickly became controversial.
The Mexican authorities expressed the frustration of the surprise nature of the arrests and questioned the role of the American authorities in the arrest, launching their own investigation into the potential violations of immigration laws and customs, and the alleged kidnapping of El Mayo by Guzmán López.
Arrest has eroded bilateral confidence in safety cooperation and triggered a violent inner war For control within the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most formidable criminal groups in Mexico – destabilizing the state of Sinaloa and leaving Sheinbaum to manage the human and economic crisis that resulted.
Then, in February 2025, the Trump administration designated Six main Mexican criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. He too threatened to impose prices on Mexican imports Unless stricter measures are taken to curb the flow of fentanyl and migrants, going later until accusing the Sheinbaum administration of maintaining a “intolerable allianceWith organized crime.
A few days before the announcement, the American prosecutor Pamela Bondi called Mexico “opponent” during an audience in the Senate and refused to answer if Sheinbaum cooperated satisfactorily on security issues.
Sheinbaum expressed his desire to support increased cooperation to combat drug smuggling and irregular migration. Unlike his predecessor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Sheinbaum sought to appease his American counterpart by accelerating the repression of the law and sending troops to the northern border, which contributed to a fall into fentanyl convulsions and migrant passages On the American-mexic border, according to customs and the protection of American borders.
“In qualitative terms, cooperation between current governments in the United States and Mexico is stronger than under the previous Mexican administration,” said Dr. Antonio Mena-Ortiz, an associate professor at the University of Georgetown. “And that shouldn’t be overlooked.”
However, Trump continues to exert economic and political pressure on Mexico, undermining Sheinbaum’s efforts to establish a bilateral security relationship based on respect for the sovereignty and transparency of Mexico – an angular stone of the policy of his administration towards the United States.
