LAREDO, Texas, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Stopping the flow of billions of dollars in drug profits from the United States to Mexico is a critical element in the war on drugs, officials say.
As much as $25 billion is smuggled into Mexico by drug cartels every year, and authorities are only able to seize about 1 percent of that amount, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
"If we fail to curtail these money flows, the confrontation with organized crime will generate more violence and more corruption," Carlos Pascual, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said at a border conference in El Paso this month.
The funds are often wrapped in bricks of $20 bills found stashed in spare tires, engine transmissions and in truckloads of baby diapers, the newspaper reported.
"Cash is the ultimate challenge for us," said John Arvanitis, chief of financial operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "It moves so rapidly, so fluidly. It crosses borders. It moves in bulk. It is stored in warehouses. It is moved into business. They have multiple, multiple options. They can hide a million dollars in a tractor-trailer, or they can carry it across the border in a handbag."
