MEXICO CITY, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A river of cash proceeds is flowing across the U.S. border to Mexican drug cartels every day, officials say.
Thanks to crackdowns on money laundering in the United States, more of the cartel's cash is being shipped back to Mexico via ingenious smuggling methods, and border officials are only stopping a small slice of it, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The newspaper said that even though authorities seized $138 million last year, it's only a modest piece of the $18 billion to $39 billion a year the Drug Enforcement Agency estimates is being smuggled to Mexico every year.
John Feeley, deputy chief of mission of the United States Embassy in Mexico City, told the Times Mexico and the United States are going to devote even more energy to going after the cartels' profits, which reportedly are laundered through legitimate businesses such as spas and day-care centers.
"There is an enormous amount of money that is flowing undetected and uninterdicted," added John Morton, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement. "We are trying to be a step ahead of the people moving the money. Unfortunately, right now we are a step behind."
