How Cartels Launder Money in Mexico

MEXICO — A payment made with Bitcoin. A call from a call center offering a week of vacation. A concert by a favorite singer. Each of these acts can conceal a technique used by criminals to legitimize their illicit funds. In recent years, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, through its alerts and sanctions list designations, has depicted a new landscape in which cryptocurrencies, music, and timeshare hotel contracts are being used by criminal networks for money laundering.

International groups estimate that this activity in Mexico could range from $18 billion to $44 billion per year. "Individuals engaged in illicit activities want to incorporate the money obtained into the formal market, and for that, they seek tools that meet two conditions: that the origin of the funds is concealed and, since the amounts are very large, that they use the financial system and parallel methods," explains Luis Pérez de Acha, a lawyer specializing in money laundering.

The techno-financial sector and cryptocurrencies amply fulfill these two characteristics. Cryptocurrencies are a tool increasingly used by members of organized crime due to their ability to move funds internationally while limiting access to information about who sends and receives the assets. Money laundering organizations use them to launder profits from drug trafficking, according to the latest 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment published by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

There were plenty of examples throughout 2025. In May, a Mexican lawyer pleaded guilty in the United States to laundering $52 million for the Sinaloa Cartel. Upon realizing that the FBI was tracking the accounts of the shell companies he used to launder cash from drug sales, he moved his laundering network and assets into the world of cryptocurrencies.

When Ovidio Guzmán, one of El Chapo's sons, struck a deal with U.S. authorities and pleaded guilty in June, he explained how, after distributing fentanyl across the country, his money launderers used money transfers and cryptocurrencies to deliver the profits to him and other members of his group. That same week, it was announced that $10 million in cryptocurrencies directly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel had been seized in Florida.

Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain, a decentralized technology that ensures the traceability of operations but anonymizes users. "Transfers can be traced, but the platforms make it so that, although what was transferred can be detected, it is very difficult to know the parties involved," describes Víctor Ruiz, a cybersecurity expert and founder of the consulting firm Silikn. "At times, agencies like the FBI may manage to trace an operation that seems suspicious, only to find that it was actually a legal transaction between companies."

"What cybercriminals do is have accomplices or coerce people to handle these laundering networks; they give them the cash, the accomplices put it into their accounts, move it through crypto assets, and then return it," he continues. "There is also the issue of Chinese companies that accept assets like Bitcoin and use them to pay for the chemical precursors for drug manufacturing."

In October 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice accused eight Chinese chemical companies of trafficking these very compounds to criminal organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation so they could synthesize fentanyl. In a series of intercepted conversations included in the indictment, the buyer is seen asking what is the safest way to pay for a kilo of precursors. "Western Union and Bitcoin are safe, but Western Union has a limit on amounts, so it is more convenient to use Bitcoin for large sums of money," replies the company Guangzhou Tengyue.

The United States has also accused music promotion companies and singers of being a vehicle for converting the profits of criminal groups into clean money. In 2025, DEL Entertainment and its owner were convicted for having made deals with Jesús Pérez Alvear, alias Chucho, a music promoter from Guadalajara who had been sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury for mixing the profits of the Los Cuinis group, linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with the legitimate income from ticket and drink sales at the concerts he organized.

At the end of 2024, Pérez Alvear was murdered in the upscale Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. He had allegedly begun cooperating with the United States as a cooperating witness.