Mexico Creates Specialized Unit to Focus on Criminal Organizations

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum attends her morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, on April 2, 2025. Marco Ugarte, File/AP Photo

The Mexican government has created a specialized unit to investigate money laundering by criminal groups.

The creation of the General Directorate Specialized in Criminal Organizations was published as a decree on May 27 and came into effect on May 28.

The new directorate is part of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. The Financial Intelligence Unit, created in 2004, is responsible for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

“It is a special unit to strengthen the [Financial Intelligence Unit] in everything related to money laundering,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her morning press conference on May 27.

Sheinbaum also said that the objective of the directorate is “to have more investigative and intelligence capacity to investigate” such crimes.

The new unit will also have to “provide, request, and exchange with the competent foreign authorities the information and documentation necessary for the exercise of its powers.”

It will coordinate the reception and analysis of reports on acts, operations, and services related to persons possibly linked to criminal organizations and high-impact crimes for submission to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

To design and implement strategies to help prevent these types of crimes, the new directorate will work in coordination with Financial Intelligence Unit authorities inside and outside Mexico, and other international organizations. It will also work in coordination with various authorities in Mexico and abroad, as well as with international organizations, to design and implement strategies to help prevent these crimes.

Among its main responsibilities, the directorate will strengthen the prevention and fight against these crimes to protect the country’s financial system and economy.

The announcement was made less than a week after the seventh phone call between President Donald Trump and Mexican President Sheinbaum on May 22, in which they addressed economic and security issues.

Sheinbaum also announced that, as part of the ongoing negotiations between the two countries, Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard is planning to travel to Washington for a meeting.

In recent months, the Trump administration has taken action to strengthen the country’s national security, including designating several Mexican drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs as global terrorist organizations.

The cartels included in the designation are Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel del Golfo, Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cárteles Unidos, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and Cártel del Noreste.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.