$10B Every Year from Money Laundering, Not Illegal in 16 Mexican States Patricia Rey Mallen - International Business Times
go to original February 14, 2014

MEXICO CITY — Three years ago, all Mexican states agreed to strengthen all measures to stop money laundering, as part of the war on drugs and as a strategy to attack the cartels from other fronts - such as suffocating their ways of funding. However, not even half of the country had actually taken any steps to make it a reality: Out of the 31 Mexican states, only 14 had listed money laundering as a felony.

Furthermore, only five states had gone so far as to create a Unidad de Inteligencia Patrimonial y Económica (Economic Intelligence Unit, or UIPE), and of those, only two were actively operating. The theoretical joint efforts of the country to bust one of the main criminal activities was, for all intents and purposes, a bust.

Enter current President Enrique Peña Nieto, who decided to take action to the issue. By the time his administration took office on Dec. 1, 2012, there was already a bill in the works: the Anti-Laundering Law, which aimed to “contribute to the development of a healthy, transparent and investment-ready economy,” according to its promoters.

The law was approved in July 2013, specifying that each Mexican state could apply it at their own pace - which resulted in an heterogeneous legal landscape that still favored the illicit practice.

The issue was not an easy one to tackle. According to numbers by the Mexican Finance Ministry, around $10 billion is laundered every year. U.S.-based independent consultancy Stratfor, however, reports the yearly amount to be as much as $39 billion.

Read the rest at International Business Times

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