The fines are part of a four state settlement. Western Union acknowledged it had reason to know active money laundering was happening at several of its locations. The money was transferred from the US to Mexico.
A Phoenix-area businessman is charged in an 80-count state criminal indictment of running a money-laundering operation that processed tens of millions of dollars in transactions to aid human and drug smuggling schemes.
Court documents allege that approximately 80 to 100 percent of all Western Union transactions done by those businesses were intended to pay human smugglers for bringing illegal immigrants into the United States.
AP notes that $25 billion in drug money is smuggled out of the US each year, with immigrant smuggling bringing in $1.7 billion in Arizona alone.
Let’s legalize marijuana and get a sensible immigration policy. That will stop the drug cartels and the corruption that is spilling over the borders to the US.