Mexican Government Rushes to Defend Cartel-Connected Banks Targeted for Sanctions by U.S. Treasury Department

Mexico’s government is rushing to the aid of two Mexican-based banks and a brokerage firm that the U.S. Department of the Treasury accused of working with various cartels to launder money or helping them move money to China to pay for fentanyl precursors. Mexican officials questioned the validity of the Treasury Department’s sanctions, stating that the claims lack sufficient evidence to support the allegations.

In a prepared statement issued this week, Mexico’s Secretariat of Treasury and Public Credit (SHCP) claimed that as soon as the U.S. Treasury notified them of the actions against the three Mexican financial institutions, they requested proof of such actions. Mexican officials claimed in their statement that they had found no evidence of criminal action by the financial institutions, despite allegations brought forth by U.S. authorities.

SHCP claimed that the information provided by the U.S. Treasury only dealt with a few transfers between the  Mexican institutions and “legally constituted Chinese companies.” Mexican officials claimed that the transfers were no different than thousands of others done between other Mexican financial institutions and China through legitimate commerce.

SHCP claimed that a review by Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) only revealed administrative faults, with no evidence of criminal behavior on the part of the three institutions. CNBV officials claimed that to date, they have no real proof of criminal behavior.

The effort to disprove the information from the U.S. Treasury Department comes soon after as Breitbart Texas reported, they had identified CIBanco SA, Intercam SA, and Vector Casa De Bolsa as having worked with multiple drug cartels to launder millions in drug proceeds and had helped the criminal organizations pay Chinese companies for shipments of fentanyl precursors.

The statement by Mexican officials comes as the country continues to deal with a dark cloud of corruption and a long history of protecting drug cartels. At the start of the Trump Administration, the White House singled out Mexico’s government for having an “intolerable relationship with drug cartels.”