Maricopa, Pima counties included in expanded Treasury effort to dismantle cartel finances

The U.S. Treasury Department wants to get more data from people in Maricopa and Pima counties who are sending money abroad.

Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has had additional requirements in place for certain counties on the U.S.-Mexico border for about a year. The order requires businesses that provide services like exchanging currency and transmitting money abroad to submit more information for transactions over $1,000.

Now those requirements are being expanded to Arizona’s two most populous counties as the federal government seeks to crack down on drug cartels’ financial networks.

Customers in Maricopa and Pima counties who usually are able to send money without identification might be asked to present an ID next time they go in, said Sarah Beth Felix, who advises money services businesses like currency exchangers and money wiring services.

“Part of our national security goals is getting dirty money out of our economic system. And we can’t do that if we don’t know who is doing what,” Felix said.

The Treasury Department says the data provides law enforcement with additional tools to investigate possible traffickers.

The requirements have already been in place in Yuma and Santa Cruz counties in Arizona, as well as several counties directly on the border in Texas and California. In addition to Pima and Maricopa counties, the expanded requirements now apply to counties in New Mexico as well.

“For too long, cartels have abused the U.S. financial system to profit from poisoning Americans with deadly fentanyl,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “At Treasury, we are expanding our efforts to keep drug money out of the United States and to provide law enforcement with additional information to put these traffickers behind bars.”