FinCEN Issues Supplemental Alert on Fuel Smuggling and Tax Evasion Schemes on the Southern Border Associated with Mexico-Based Cartels

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a supplemental Alert to advise financial institutions to be vigilant in detecting, identifying, and reporting suspicious activity connected to Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and other Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations smuggling fuel from the United States into Mexico in schemes involving Mexican tax evasion known as fiscal fuel theft. FinCEN's Alert provides an overview of methodologies and financial typologies associated with these fiscal fuel theft schemes; highlights red flag indicators; and reminds financial institutions of their reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN is issuing this Alert alongside an Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions action against two Mexican nationals and nine entities tied to CJNG's fuel smuggling schemes and in partnership with the South Texas Homeland Security Task Force.

Treasury Press Release

• Treasury Targets Criminal Facilitators Behind CJNG's Cross-Border Fuel-Smuggling Schemes

FinCEN Alert

• FinCEN Supplemental Alert on Fuel Smuggling and Tax Evasion Schemes on the Southern Border Associated with Mexico-Based Cartels