Up to $50 Billion Per Year Laundered in Mexican Financial System Roberto Gonzalez Amador - La Jornada
go to original September 4, 2016

People of northern Mexican city of Culiacan are living in fear of criminal organizations that use women in the city to launder their illicit earnings. (Al Jazeera English)

Laundering money obtained from illegal activities is a crime that is growing. The ways of laundering the proceeds of organized crime have found new routes, some of them currently out of reach of the supervision of the authorities. One is funding projects through digital platform fundraising activity whose regulation is a subject on the legislative agenda.

Theodore Briseño, director of TM Sourcing, a consulting firm that supports vulnerable organizations to prevent this crime, says, "Money laundering has been growing in the world and in Mexico." Briseño's firm has organized a seminar on the prevention of money laundering in Mexico City next Friday.

In Mexico, every year, between 15 billion and 50 billion dollars are laundered, mainly through the financial system, an amount that Briseño said is recognized by authorities in the Secretariat of the Treasury, the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and the Attorney General of the Republic.

An assessment made by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in 2013 found that money laundering in Mexico reaches an amount equivalent to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product. That means about 340 billion pesos, about 18 billion dollars at current exchange rates. The Stratfor consultancy, which specializes in security issues, estimates that Mexican criminal organizations send to Mexico between 19 billion and 39 billion dollars from illegal activities.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: How Do Criminals Launder Money Through a Mexican Restaurant? (Eater)

Related: A Beginner's Guide to Laundering Money (Business Insider)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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