U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has seized around 1.8 million USD in crypto assets from 6 Binance accounts that were connected to drug traffickers.
A civil forfeiture request has been approved by a U.S. Court in Easter Michigan for the seizure of approximately 1.8 million USD worth of digital assets in today’s value. The assets were seized in May 2022, to disrupt the cash pipeline that transferred the earned drug money back to Mexico with the use of stablecoins.
The reports state that money mules would exchange the generated drug money for USDT and Bitcoin (BTC) on Binance. Afterward, they would send the assets to the wallet addresses owned by a Mexican criminal organization. In total, 6 Binance accounts were tied to the illegal activity, states the criminal complaint.
Binance and the DEA are working closely alongside each other, to the point where Binance staff and DEA officials meet on a regular basis to share information and adjust Binance's anti-money laundering policies and to assist the DEA operations.
Mexican cartels continue their attempts to make use of Binance as a means for money laundering, which began in early 2020. In 2021 a Mexican national, Carlos Fong Echavarria, pled guilty to charges of laundering around 4.7 million USD in digital assets, as well as drug trafficking.
