FinCEN warns Mexican cartels are increasingly using fuel smuggling as a TBML scheme, exploiting shell companies and fake invoices to evade taxes and launder illicit profits

Mexican cartels are increasingly smuggling fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc.) from the U.S. into Mexico. They evade Mexican fuel taxes and sell the fuel illegally in Mexico at large profit margins. The schemes are linked to major groups like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and other Mexico-based criminal networks. Criminals use fake invoices, shell companies, and complicit traders on both sides of the border to disguise the origin of fuel…