In response to what the Financial Times reports as over $10 billion in illicit funds that are laundered each year in the US, the US government has recently placed tough new controls on banks. The move is designed to slow down, if not stop, the entrance of narcotic profits from Mexican drug cartels into the US banking system. In their efforts to comply with the regulations several large US-based banks have recently begun to shut down their branches near the US-Mexican border.
The FT article, entitled “Mexico: Clearing Out,” describes members of the US banking industry claiming that legal, legitimate businesses and above-board financial transactions are being dragged into the fray, causing damage.
“The crackdown on money laundering has not necessarily curtailed the practice, but instead may simply have pushed it further underground. The up to $10bn in illicit cash that used to flow through the system is still going to the US, the senior Mexican banker says: “It’s just no longer on the radar.””
The final straw that forced US regulators to take strong action was revealed in an article in Breitbart Texas, discussing Mexican cartel money laundering within the US banking industry.
“World banking giant, HSBC, got caught with its hand in a money laundering scheme that helped drug cartels turn nearly a billion dollars in narco-cash into gold. HSBC only faced a fine for their complicity, but members of money-laundering organizations (MLO) are now facing up to twenty years.”
Although HSBC was heavily fined, none of the banking execs went to prison for their behavior, which enabled Mexico’s intense drug war.