translated from Spanish: Mexico re-blocks 122 cartel accounts

Mexico City.- The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) on Tuesday blocked the accounts of 122 natural and moral persons of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Next Generation Cartels (CJNG), as well as the criminal organizations of Los Zetas and the Union Tepito.Al term of a Panel on Domain Extinction at the University of the Americas Puebla, Mexico City Campus, Santiago Nieto, holder of the UIF, reported that these freezes correspond to 36 financial asset freezing agreements that were now turned to banks .
“In total we have blocked 990 million pesos from the cartels so far this administration, although today I signed another 36 blocking agreements, it is barely ongoing, I believe that in two days (quantities will be known), because it takes the banks 48 hours to hold what the amount of the blocked is,” the official said.
But there are 36 blocking agreements related to CJNG, Sinaloa, Union Tepito, Zetas, etc. There are 122 natural and moral persons related to these 36 blocking agreements.

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In connection with the freezing of 330 bank accounts of the Sinaloa Cartel, announced on November 26, Nieto reported that one of the natural persons blocked in that agreement is Ovidio Guzmán López, son of the capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.The holder of the UIF revealed that cases of account blocks have been filed with drug trafficking organizations that no one has claimed over this year. Such is the case of the CJNG, which did not legally process or demand the thawing of $2 million and 24 million pesos in the financial system. The problem in these cases, Nieto said, is that this money is left by banks and that is why it is necessary to amend the legislation on the matter so that these assets are allocated to institutions in charge of social programs, among other tasks.
When the UIF and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) created a joint agreement to raise people from THE CJNG, we have had the blockade of millions of dollars and millions of pesos that no one has claimed and those accounts today are left with the banks Said.

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“Our position is a very clear position, we need to generate some legislative reform so that these accounts go to social programs or the Treasury of the Federation and are distributed in the terms that are decided.” Defends extinction Nieto defended the reform of extinction of dominance that is being debated in the Union Congress, because with the current model it is intended to wait until the conviction in a criminal trial in order to obtain the goods of crime. It clarified that the reservation to this reform, submitted by Meput Lidia García, was vitiated by an error of assessment, since it implies that the FIU would have the right to extinguish ownership of a property without the mediation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic.

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According to data from the Council of the Federal Judiciary, from 2015 to 2018 alone, $15 million and $4 million were seized for the crime of operations with resources and illicit provenance. Evidently in a society that is the fifteenth economy in the world, 15 million pesos and 4 million dollars are ridiculous, he said.

“What the initiative says is ‘the UIF will promote in terms of the Constitution and the law.’ What does the Constitution say? Well, it has to be the Public Prosecution Service. All that can be done (the FIU) is to give an eye to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in respect of a resolution of an administrative nature, after a guarantee of hearing, to point out that there is a possibility that these resources have an illicit origin, develop you guys the procedure.”



Original source in Spanish