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The U.S. Justice Department is taking aim at what it describes as the financial lifelines of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, targeting money brokers prosecutors say have adapted to intensified enforcement by routing drug profits through cryptocurrency. In a series of cases involving defendants transferred from Mexico to the United States for prosecution, the Justice Department said it is trying to stay ahead of evolving tactics used to move money across the border without detection.
Justice Department officials said the prosecutions illustrate a shift in focus away from street-level traffickers and toward intermediaries they believe form a key chokepoint in cartel operations. Prosecutors said they are pursuing alleged money brokers who oversee movement of cartel proceeds and take a commission as the funds return to cartel leadership.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Department’s criminal division, said the strategy is meant to disrupt cartel finances directly. “If you cut off the money, you hurt the cartels, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Duva said.
Prosecutors said the latest transfers include Mexico-based money brokers who arrange for cash to be picked up in cities across the United States and then conceal the money to move it across the border. Duva said the cases show both longstanding methods and a newer trend tied to digital assets, describing “bulk cash smuggling” as well as “taking the cash, buying cryptocurrency, and then trading that cryptocurrency.” Prosecutors also said they want to determine, in part, how the money is distributed and who is involved, while also zeroing in on the specific methods used to extract funds through U.S. banks.
The Justice Department filed indictments in Kentucky federal court charging Eduardo Rigoberto Velasco Calderon, Eliomar Segura Torres, Manuel Ignacio Correa and Cesar Linares-Orozco with money laundering conspiracy. The Associated Press reported that an attorney for Linares-Orozco declined to comment in an email, and no attorneys were listed in court papers for the other defendants.
The transfers to the United States have been repeated during President Donald Trump’s second term, with the Associated Press reporting that a January transfer of 37 defendants from Mexico to the U.S. marked the third such transfer since the administration began. The Associated Press reported that observers have described the transfers as a step by Mexican authorities to offset mounting threats by Trump to take military action against cartels.
The legal debate in Mexico has centered on the transfers’ process. A group of lawyers and family members of cartel figures have accused Mexico of breaking the law by sending suspects without an extradition order, while Mexico’s government has said the transfers were legal and carried out for national security, according to the Associated Press report.
The Justice Department said cooperation in these prosecutions could expand the reach of criminal cases. Senior Justice Department officials said bringing cartel figures to the United States is designed to do more than deter and could lead to additional indictments if defendants cooperate, allowing prosecutors to seek charges further up the cartel leadership chain.