EXCLUSIVE — A House Republican has introduced legislation to clamp down on Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations that use commercial wire transfer services to send money within or outside of the United States, a move that is meant to stop international crime rings from shifting profits back home.
Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) on Wednesday debuted the Financial Integrity for National Security, or FINS, Act, which would allow the federal government to surveil and shut down the financial avenues that transnational criminal organizations use to move money across borders, including crime rings involved in the smuggling of people, firearms, and drugs.
“For years, cartels and terrorist groups have exploited a loophole that Washington ignored. Wire transfer companies moved billions with little scrutiny, fueling human trafficking, drugs, and violence,” Harrigan said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The FINS Act brings these companies into the real financial system, where they belong, and makes it a lot harder for criminals to treat our laws like a suggestion.”
Wire transfer service providers are businesses that electronically transfer money on behalf of customers or businesses, both domestically and internationally.
Commercial wire transfer services, Western Union, Ria, and XE, are largely unregulated because they are not formally classified as financial institutions like banks, which face stricter oversight and regulation.
The bill would add “wire transfer service providers” as financial institutions under the existing Bank Secrecy Act, which means they would be under the government’s oversight. The wire service providers would also be fair game under anti-money laundering laws.
If passed, the treasury secretary would be required to issue rules implementing the oversight framework within 180 days of the bill’s enactment. The regulations would go into effect one year after enactment.
In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared eight primarily Latin-based cartels as terrorist organizations, following through on President Donald Trump’s promise to change the classification because of how the crime rings engaged in cross-border crime.
Among those designated as foreign terrorist organizations were Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf cartel), and Cárteles Unidos as FTOs and SDGTs.
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The Washington Examiner previously reported that Mexican cartels that smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. used money launderers in China to send their profits back to Mexico.
Amid the border crisis under former President Joe Biden in 2023, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) testified in a hearing that Mexican cartels profited $13 billion from smuggling and trafficking people into the U.S. every year.