Mexican cartels’ new money laundering businesses: Cryptocurrencies, concerts and timeshares

A payment in Bitcoin. A call from a call center offering a week of vacation. A concert by your favorite singer. Each of these events can conceal a technique with which criminals turn their illicit money into real estate. In recent years, the United States Department of the Treasury, through alerts and inclusions on the sanctions list, has painted a new picture in which cryptocurrencies, music, and timeshare hotel contracts are used by criminal networks for money laundering. International analysts estimate that in Mexico this activity can generate from $18 billion to $44 billion annually.

“People who engage in illicit activities want to incorporate the money they obtain into the formal market, and to do so, they look for tools that meet two conditions: concealing the source of the funds and, since the amounts are very large, using the financial system and parallel methods,” explains Luis Pérez de Acha, a lawyer specializing in money laundering. The techno-finance sector and cryptocurrencies more than meet these two requirements.

Cryptocurrencies are a tool increasingly used by organized crime groups due to their ability to move funds internationally while limiting access to information about who sends and receives the assets. Money laundering organizations use them to launder drug trafficking proceeds, according to the latest 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment report published by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

There were plenty of examples throughout 2025. In May, a Mexican lawyer pleaded guilty in the United States to laundering $52 million for the Sinaloa Cartel. When he realized the FBI was targeting the accounts of the shell companies he used to launder drug proceeds, he moved his money-laundering network and assets into the world of cryptocurrencies. When Ovidio Guzmán, one of “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons, made a deal with U.S. authorities and pleaded guilty in June, he explained how, after distributing fentanyl across the country, his launderers used money transfers and cryptocurrencies to send the proceeds to him and other members of his group. That same week, it was announced that $10 million in cryptocurrencies directly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel had been seized in Florida.

Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain, a decentralized technology that ensures the traceability of transactions but anonymizes users. “Transfers can be tracked, but the platforms make it very difficult to identify the parties involved, even if the transfer is detected,” explains Víctor Ruiz, a cybersecurity expert and founder of the consulting firm Silikn. “Sometimes, agencies like the FBI can track a transaction that seems suspicious only to discover that it was actually a legitimate transaction between companies.”

“What cybercriminals do is hire accomplices or people they threaten to take over these money laundering networks; they give them the money in cash, they put it in their accounts, transfer it to crypto assets, and then return it,” he continues. “There’s also the issue of Chinese companies that accept assets like bitcoin and use them to pay for chemical precursors for drug manufacturing.”

In October 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice charged eight Chinese chemical companies with trafficking precisely these compounds to criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel so they could synthesize fentanyl. In a series of intercepted conversations included in the indictment, the buyer asks what is the safest way to pay for a kilo of precursors. “Western Union and Bitcoin are secure, but Western Union has a limit on the amounts, so it’s more convenient to use Bitcoin for large amounts of money,” replies Guangzhou Tengyue.

The United States has also accused music promotion companies and singers of being a vehicle for converting criminal groups’ profits into clean money. In 2025, DEL Entertainment and its owner were convicted for having made deals with Jesús Pérez Alvear, alias “Chucho,” a Guadalajara-based music promoter who had been sanctioned by the Treasury Department for mixing profits from the criminal group Los Cuinis — linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — with legitimate income from ticket sales and drinks at the concerts he organized. In late 2024, Pérez Alvear was murdered in the wealthy Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. He had allegedly begun cooperating with the United States as a witness.

The assets of Ricardo Hernández Medrano, stage name El Makabelico and a “renowned drug rapper,” have recently been frozen, according to U.S. authorities. He is accused of laundering money for the Cartel del Noreste through his concerts, in addition to giving half of his earnings from platforms like Spotify to the criminal group. El Makabelico is signed to the record label DEL Records, which shares ownership with DEL Entertainment.

Another red flag is timeshare scams in Mexico, such a common practice that this August the Treasury Department described Puerto Vallarta (Nayarit) as a lost paradise for American retirees, whom the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is dedicated to deceiving out of their savings. A timeshare is a contract that grants you the right to use a resort for a specific number of weeks per year. It’s like purchasing vacation weeks in advance at a hotel or condominium.

In total, four Mexican nationals and 13 companies were sanctioned — including having their assets frozen — for their participation in this scheme. Of these, five were in the timeshare business and three were involved in real estate, while the rest were two package tour operators, a transportation services company, an accounting firm, and a travel agency; together, they formed a web of schemes to deceive and fleece their victims.

Throughout 2023, another 22 individuals and 30 companies were sanctioned for their involvement in these types of crimes. “The cartel’s fraudsters have sophisticated teams of professionals who appear perfectly normal on paper or over the phone,” stated Brian E. Nelson, then U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, “but in reality, they are money launderers specially trained to defraud American citizens.”

With the help of timeshare sales companies, they select their targets. They typically contact retired grandparents through call centers or email. Posing as sales agents or lawyers, they make an overly tempting offer to buy or help them sell their timeshare weeks. But to start collecting, they ask them to transfer “taxes” and “commissions” to Mexican accounts. Once the money arrives in Mexico, the agents disappear. There is an even crueler approach, in which these same networks contact them, posing as lawyers who can help them after they have been scammed, but first ask them to transfer an initial payment for their services.

“For the past four years, we’ve detected an increase in these types of scams, which clearly follow a pattern,” says Silvana Sánchez, director of the litigation practice at MexLaw, a law firm whose main services include “Timeshare Cancellation.” Upon entering their website, a banner appears: “There are people contacting timeshare owners claiming to be from MexLaw. It’s a fraud. We never contact anyone unless they are already our client.”

After clarifying that they haven’t handled any cases related to organized crime, Sánchez explains two other types of scams they’ve observed. “In one, they approach the victim with a court ruling in their favor and tell them that to release nonexistent funds, they have to transfer tax payments; and in the other, when they sign up for timeshares, they offer the additional service of a marketing agency to help them sell their weeks and make a profit, again, in exchange for transferring a commission.”

Since 2019, according to the FBI, over 6,000 Americans have fallen for these scams, accumulating losses of $300 million, but they estimate that a larger number is hidden due to the shame of admitting to having been conned.

“The pursuit of networks that bring illicit money into the formal market will always lag far behind,” concludes attorney Pérez de Acha. “Authorities are overwhelmed with tracking all the cases, and they carry out emblematic operations that could serve as examples, and then implement preventative measures.” Money laundering thus becomes a cross between an arms race — in which criminals invent new methods as they detect them — and a game in which a cat chases hundreds of mice. While it manages to catch one, the others escape.

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