Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issues alert on bulk cash smuggling and repatriation by Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert urging financial institutions to be vigilant for activity linked to bulk cash smuggling from the United States into Mexico and the repatriation of those proceeds into the United States and Mexican financial systems by Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). The alert is intended to support detection and reporting of related activity under the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN outlines a typology for laundering illicit proceeds generated in the United States through cross-border movement of cash, describing how these operations enable TCOs to place, layer, and integrate funds back into financial systems for renewed access. The alert provides an overview of methodologies associated with these operations, highlights red flag indicators, and reiterates financial institutions’ reporting requirements; FinCEN also links the product to its broader TCO-related advisories, two of the eight national Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism national priorities, and Executive Order 14157 on designating certain cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.