The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently issued a geographic targeting order (GTO) to further combat money laundering, drug cartels and other illicit activities along the southwest border.
“Today’s issuance of this GTO underscores our deep concern with the significant risk to the U.S. financial system of the cartels, drug traffickers, and other criminal actors along the Southwest border,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. “As part of a whole-of-government approach to combatting the threat, Treasury remains focused on leveraging all our available tools and authorities to better identify and counter these criminal activities.”
The order requires all money services businesses located in 30 California and Texas ZIP codes to file reports with FinCEN at a $200 cash transactions threshold.
The GTO is effective 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register and will remain in effect for 179 days.
Last month, U.S. Departments of the Treasury and State designated eight organizations, including six major Mexico-based drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations and/or specially designated global terrorists. The designations mean the United States can take additional steps to deny individuals and groups associated with the organizations access to the U.S. financial system.