Mexico's Ministry of Finance and Public Credit announced coordinated domestic and cross-border actions, through its Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), after the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 11 targets for providing material, financial or technological support to the Venezuelan-origin criminal network Tren de Aragua. The UIF reported it has located one of the designated individuals in Mexico, added that person to Mexico’s Blocked Persons List, filed a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General (FGR), issued alerts to the financial system, and worked with OFAC to corroborate the presence of “shell” companies operating in Mexico. OFAC’s designations covered seven individuals and four legal entities, and the Ministry framed the action as part of ongoing efforts to prevent the misuse of Mexico’s financial system by transnational criminal organizations. The release also noted that one OFAC-designated individual is a Venezuelan public figure linked to the entertainment sector with recent presence and recorded financial activity in Mexico, with open-source reporting cited as indicating ties to a leader of the criminal group. The UIF said it is coordinating with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to establish that individual’s location in Mexico and, where applicable, proceed with inclusion on the Blocked Persons List, a complaint to the FGR, and additional financial-sector alerts. Information exchange with OFAC will continue to verify potential front companies linked to the network that may operate in Mexico.

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