Financial Transparency Coalition

This wasn’t meant to happen in the last decade. Money laundering regulation was meant to have stopped the handling of drug cash in the USA. The Patriot Act was meant to have closed down such things. The FATF 49 recommendations were meant to have been in place. But as the Observer reported yesterday, US bank Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo, money laundered hundreds of billions for Mexican drug gangs in the USA. And, when the activity was questioned internally from London, the money laundering officer who did so was driven out.

As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored

In a joint press conference with Salvadoran President Funes last week, President Obama announced that—through the Central American Security Partnership program—$200 million will be provided to fight drug cartels and organized crime in the region.  The President noted that the money will be used to address “the social and economic forces that drive young people towards criminality,” as well as “help strengthen courts, civil society groups and institutions that uphold the rule of law.”  While this is a more comprehensive effort than has been previously seen, the Obama administration’s plan of attack still falls short. Traditional approaches to...

WASHINGTON – In an effort to catch Mexican drug lords, the federal agency responsible for regulating the gun industry and cracking down on gun crime allowed thousands of weapons to pass into Mexico and fall into the hands of criminals, according to a report by CBS News and other outlets this week.