Discussion Mexican Drug Cartels use Crypto to Launder $25B annually.

[PedroNavajas]

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by Mexican and Colombian cartels to launder millions of dollars from drug trafficking and other criminal activities, the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warned Thursday.

"It is believed that, in Mexico alone, Mexican cartels launder some $25 billion a year," the INCB notes, stressing that the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, the most powerful in the country, are the ones that make the most use of virtual currencies.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

"Criminals often divide illicit money into small amounts that they deposit into several bank accounts, a technique known as smurfing. They then use these accounts to make a series of online purchases of small amounts of bitcoin, allowing them to disguise the origin of the money and pay their associates in other parts of the world," the document adds.

Cárteles de México lavan unos 25 mil mdd al año con criptomonedas: Junta de Estupefacientes de la ONU

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[Kenka]

NFTs will be used next.

What are lawmakers doing the world over.

 

[Brock Reiher]

I thought that was the point

 

[Quzar]

Crypto has been and always will be a money laundering service, anyone saying otherwise is fooling themselves.

 

[Heron]

It was absolutely bizarre being at a FIBA conference on anti-money laundering and in one session they're explaining all the new laws for double-checking sanctions lists and opening new bank accounts (which are starting to drive banks away from allowing poor people to bank) and in the next session you have the same people cheerleading crypto as the future.

I genuinely think a lot of them didn't understand that crypto can be traded without using a registered exchange like Coinbase. They were clueless.

Add this to the environmental factor and there's no doubt that while blockchain is a fascinating technology, it's not worth it for the tiny utility it offers over other forms of distributed database.