Drug Cartels and Money Laundering

The Justice Department is rolling out a cartel-finance crackdown focused on Mexico-based money brokers who allegedly move drug profits from U.S. cities to cartel bosses using cryptocurrency, with officials announcing details at a Feb. 6, 2026 news conference in Washington. A. Tysen Duva, the assistant attorney general overseeing the Criminal Division, said the strategy is to hit a 'choke point' in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s and other groups’ operations by prosecuting the financial middlemen rather than just street‑level traffickers. Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Mexico has transferred more than 90 high‑level cartel‑linked defendants to the U.S., including four alleged money brokers now at the center of new cases that describe cash pickups in U.S. cities, bulk smuggling, and conversion of drug proceeds into digital assets to evade traditional banking scrutiny. DOJ has reorganized its Criminal Division to more tightly integrate narcotics and anti‑money‑laundering prosecutors, betting that flipping these brokers could generate evidence against senior cartel leadership. The move comes as fentanyl and meth flows remain high despite headline‑grabbing maritime strikes and high‑profile kingpin arrests, and it reflects a broader shift—mirrored in law‑enforcement and expert commentary online—toward following the money rather than just the drugs.