A US Treasury official will visit Colombia and Mexico this week

A senior U.S. Treasury official will travel to Colombia and Mexico this week, a Treasury official told Reuters, as Washington seeks to combat money laundering and fentanyl smuggling into the country.

The trip by acting Office of Foreign Assets Control director Lisa Palluconi, first reported by Reuters, comes as the United States has sought to combat the fentanyl crisis at home, including by imposing sanctions.

The source said Palluconi’s meetings in Mexico City will address the deadly narcotic, which is smuggled into the United States, often through the porous U.S.-Mexico border, and is easily manufactured from chemicals sourced in China.

Fentanyl overdoses have skyrocketed to become the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45, with more than 107,000 Americans expected to die from drug overdoses in 2023.

The Treasury official said the department coordinates closely with the Mexican government on sanctions, including action earlier this month targeting a network it accused of generating millions of dollars for the benefit of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which it said is responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other drugs trafficked into the United States.

Palluconi will attend an event organized by the Mexican Banking Association that will focus on safeguarding the integrity of the U.S. and Mexican financial systems, as well as economic prosperity and the enforcement of sanctions.

While in Bogota, Palluconi will deliver a keynote address at the second Joint U.S.-Colombia Summit on Financial Sanctions Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering, the representative said, adding that the United States and Colombia have coordinated on numerous sanctions actions targeting major drug lords, cartels and their networks since the 1990s.

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