The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on 28 Aug 2025 urged banks, broker-dealers and other financial institutions to intensify monitoring for Chinese money-laundering rings that are moving narcotics proceeds for Mexican drug cartels. FinCEN said an analysis of 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act filings covering January 2020 through December 2024 pointed to roughly $312 billion in suspicious transactions linked to the Chinese networks. Of that total, about $246 billion passed through banks, $42 billion through money-service businesses and $23 billion through securities and futures accounts. According to the advisory, the networks exploit trade-based schemes, money mules and near-simultaneous “mirror” transfers to sidestep currency-control rules in both China and Mexico. The cartels involved include Jalisco New Generation, Sinaloa and the Gulf cartel, which Treasury says use the arrangements to finance fentanyl trafficking, human smuggling and U.S. real-estate purchases. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said the activity is “poisoning Americans with fentanyl,” while FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki called the networks “global and omnipresent.” The agency provided red-flag indicators and warned that institutions could face penalties under the Bank Secrecy Act if they fail to report suspect flows.