Mexican Finance Ministry says it has not acquired proof to help claims in opposition to CIBanco, Intercam and Vector banks.
The USA has imposed sanctions on three Mexican banks, alleging that they had been used to launder cash for drug cartels.
On Wednesday, the US Division of the Treasury tied the banks – CIBanco, Intercam Banco and Vector Casa de Bolsa – to the cross-border trafficking of the lethal artificial drug fentanyl.
It accused them of enjoying “a longstanding and very important function in laundering thousands and thousands of {dollars} on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating funds for the procurement of precursor chemical compounds wanted to provide fentanyl”.
The sanctions are a part of a wider stress marketing campaign by the administration of US President Donald Trump in opposition to Latin American gangs, legal networks and drug traffickers.
That marketing campaign has included designating a number of teams as “overseas terrorist organisations” and utilizing tariffs to pressure Mexico’s authorities to extend enforcement of irregular site visitors throughout the border.
In an announcement, the Treasury Division stated the banks had been the primary to be focused beneath new items of laws – the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act – handed to increase its capability to focus on cash laundering associated to opioid trafficking.
The sanctions would block transfers between the focused Mexican banks and US banks, though it was not instantly clear how far-reaching the boundaries could be.
In an announcement, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent accused the banks of “enabling the poisoning of numerous Individuals by transferring cash on behalf of cartels, making them very important cogs within the fentanyl provide chain”.
However Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit score responded to the sanctions by saying it had but to obtain conclusive proof justifying them.
“We wish to be clear: If we’ve got conclusive data proving illicit actions by these three monetary establishments, we are going to act to the fullest extent of the regulation,” the Finance Ministry stated.
“Nevertheless, thus far, we’ve got no data on this regard.”
CIBanco didn’t instantly reply to the allegations. The US Treasury Division accused it of being related to cash laundering by the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, the Jalisco New Era Cartel (CJNG) and the Gulf Cartel.
Intercam, which can be accused of getting connections to the CJNG cartel, additionally didn’t reply.
In the meantime, the brokerage agency Vector, which was linked to cash laundering by the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, stated the US claims tying its operations to drug traffickers had been false.
“Vector categorically rejects any accusation that compromises its institutional integrity,” the corporate stated in an announcement, including that it will cooperate to make clear the scenario.
