The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking a leading role in the ongoing war against terrorist drug cartels, said Secretary Scott Bessent. In a recent interview with Breitbart News, Bessent stated the Treasury Department is leveraging all the financial tools at their disposal to fight criminal organizations. “We are coming for them,” he stated.
Bessent highlighted the recent sanctioning of three Mexican financial institutions — two banks and one brokerage firm. According to Treasury officials, the institutions had been helping various drug cartels launder millions. The institutions also helped wire money to China to pay for fentanyl precursors.
The institutions identified by Treasury officials were CIBanco SA, Intercam Banco SA, and Vortex Casa de Bolsa. As Breitbart Texas reported, last month’s sanctions shook Mexico’s political elite, as Alfonso Romo, the former Chief of Staff of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, owns Vortex. In a rare turn of events, Mexico’s government quickly tried to downplay the sanctions, and even the current Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, claimed that the U.S. government had not presented her with any evidence that the financial institutions had committed any crimes.
Treasury officials have also been targeting individual cartel figures and criminal organizations that are now considered Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The designation enables treasury officials to impose various sanctions, freeze assets, and prohibit U.S. citizens and corporations from conducting business with them.
One of the different approaches also undertaken is that the issue of fentanyl production has been pushed to the forefront of trade talks with China, as that country is the leading producer of precursors of the deadly drug.
“If they (China) wanted to, they could turn off the supply of these chemicals,” the Treasury secretary explained, adding that various economic tools are being leveraged to pressure China into action.
“We are going to end this,” Bessent stated.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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