As someone said, nothing surprises me anymore. So here it goes: The cartels are into timeshares. Here is the story:
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions Wednesday on more than a dozen Mexican companies and four people it says worked with a powerful drug trafficking cartel to scam elderly Americans in a multimillion-dollar timeshare fraud.
The network of 13 businesses in areas near the seaside tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta were accused of working with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a group designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization.
In a scheme dating back to 2012, four cartel associates are accused of defrauding American citizens of their life savings through elaborate rental and resale schemes, according to a Treasury statement. In the span of six months, officials said they were able to document $23.1 million sent from mostly people in the U.S. to scammers in Mexico.
The sanctions imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump would prohibit Americans from doing business with the alleged cartel associates and block any of their assets in the U.S.
23 million going back to 2012? I would call that a very successful racket, wouldn't you?
This story, and probably more coming, confirms how widespread the cartel operations are. It leaves me wondering how many companies in Mexico are tied up to money laundering. To be fair, many may not realize it, such as having investors who are tied to cartels. In other cases, it may be part of a plan.
The moral of the story is that these cartels are indeed violent but also rather sophisticated in their business operations. Many of their leaders are not the bandits that we associate with street crime but rather well-dressed businessmen who use their laptops to check bank balances and inventory transfers.
It presents a challenge for the U.S., which is why I support the Trump administration declaring the cartels as terrorist organizations. It opens up more avenues for us to follow the money. As we can see, the money is everywhere.
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Image: AT via Magic Studio