FIU against human trafficking: blocked more than 200 million pesos in accounts related to this crime

The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) presented his report on progress in the fight against money laundering as a result of human trafficking so far in the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, where he assured that he has locked accounts in different currencies with a total accumulation of 212,985,932.82 pesos.

Through a statement released this Sunday, March 7, the agency attached to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) specified that he blocked several accounts related to this crime for 211,299,538.96 Mexican pesos, USD 77,401.25 and 1,610.54 euros.

To materialize these results, the research appendix directed by Santiago Nieto established a series of agreements with institutions dedicated to investigating human trafficking in other countries. In collaboration with the United States, the agency noted the joint collaboration that was had with FINCEN, DOT, DOL, OFAC, DOJ, CBP y HSI, for the identification of cases related to money laundering from Human Trafficking.

He also highlighted the effect of the FIU in positioning the importance of preventing and combating money laundering as a result of Human Trafficking in the face of Organization of American States (OAS). In this body, the FIU has actively participated in the Group for the Control of Money Laundering (Gelavex).

The communiqué also refers to the importance of the appendix of the Treasury to “promote the importance of expanding the typologies and perspectives in matters of illicit finances linked to Human Trafficking, for this, has suggested the incorporation of new topics in the discussion tables, such as, forced labor, child labor exploitation, migrant trafficking, organ trafficking, biomedical experimentation, among others”.

He also mentions that the United States Department of State acknowledged that the Mexican State has made significant progress in combating this crime and pointed to “the great work of the FIU, highlighting the importance of the dissemination of reports of suspicious financial transactions, allegedly related to human trafficking”.

“Likewise, he highlighted the analytical capacity of the FIU in the identification of at least 10 cases linked to these illegal activities in Mexico, figures that strengthen the efforts of the FIU in this matter, ”the statement reads.

From 2019 to 2020, the agency directed by Nieto Castillo, through the secure channel Grupo Egmont, shared information regarding this crime and had the effect of facilitating the identification of cases and their follow-up at the international level.

In July of last year, it joined the UNO-DC Blue Heart Campaign (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), in order to incorporate better training for its personnel against trafficking, as well as to generate products to prevent and efficiently detect this illegal activity.

In Mexican territory, in order to increase citizen feedback on the matter, the FIU took up the format and content of the Campaign for the Prevention of Ministry of the Interior (Segob) “Did you know what…?”, Which was carried out within the framework of the Working Group for Prevention Campaigns and Dissemination Strategies of the Inter-secretarial Commission to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Crimes in the Matter of Trafficking in Persons, to carry out a infographic on Human Trafficking published in November.

“The FIU filed 3 complaints with the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, for facts that are probably constitutive of the crime of operations with resources of illicit origin related to the preceding crime of Trafficking in Persons ”, in that sense, the unit elaborated on its progress and recognition at the international level where the US State Department, in its annual Report on Human Trafficking (2020), said that “the work of the Mexican authorities allowed the detection of a trafficking network that used bitcoins to launder money related to this illicit activity.”

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