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Watchdog Agencies Ding Mexico on Prosecution Rate, Yemen on Nearly Half of AML Standards
printMexican law enforcement agents are not adequately investigating money laundering despite an "unprecedented threat" to the country by drug cartels, an anti-money laundering watchdog said Tuesday. Between 2004 and 2007, Mexican prosecutors obtained 149 indictments relating to money laundering but only two of the cases stemmed from the country's financial intelligence unit, according to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization that issues guidance on fighting financial crime. The investigation units that handle the prosecutions for the Deputy Attorney General's Office for the Investigation of Organized Crime have been hampered in their efforts by insufficient resources, said FATF,...
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The recent joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico in the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman can be seen as a sign of renewed cooperation between investigators in both countries after a yearlong lull.
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