Mexican gangs use a guise to get money past US customs
Mexico's largest drug cartels have found a new way of transporting their illicit money gained through trafficking and smuggling across the US border without being caught out.
Cash from crime, blackmail, drugs and fraud is being transferred south under the pretence of legitimate cross-border trade, the LA Times reports.
US officials have said that the new way of getting money across the border into Mexico and Colombia is the hardest to detect method.
Gangs have reportedly been smuggling money under the guise of commerce by using dollars to purchase a commodity and then export the goods across countries with a document of propriety – making it look like it is all above board and legal.
Raymond Villanueva, head of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement lowercase unit that investigates international money laundering , told the newspaper: "It's a better way to conceal proceeds. It's not going to raise so many flags."
Last week, the Associated Press reported that officials had arrested a high-profile drug trafficker from Colombia with strong links to the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas
