Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit Files Charges Against Tourism Firms Sanctioned by U.S. for Alleged CJNG Ties

Mexico City — Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) announced Thursday it has filed criminal charges against six individuals and one company recently sanctioned by the United States for their alleged involvement in a timeshare fraud network linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

The charges were filed with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the crime of operations with illicitly obtained resources, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

The announcement came after the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 24 individuals connected to what it described as a criminal network associated with the CJNG. The Mexican ministry said it added the six individuals and one company to its national blocked persons list following the U.S. action.

“The expansion of restrictive measures, both those derived from international designation and those implemented at the national level, strengthens the preventive scope of the account blocking regime, limits access to assets within the global financial system, and closes spaces for the use of intermediaries, front men, or corporate structures intended for the dispersion of illicit resources,” the ministry stated.

Investigators say the criminal network allegedly used business and tourism schemes as fronts to obtain illicit funds, particularly in tourist areas of western Mexico including the states of Jalisco and Nayarit.

The specific fraud involved timeshare schemes where scammers allegedly deceived property owners into paying large upfront sums based on false promises related to their timeshare properties.

Authorities link the organization to the CJNG, which they describe as one of the most prominent international cartels due to its lethality and drug trafficking activities.