As authorities double down on the war against drug trafficking, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has launched a new initiative to choke off the financial lifeblood of narcotics operations. This week, FinCEN rolled out "Combating and Obstructing Money Movements Associated with Narcotics and Drug Trafficking Organizations" (COMMAND), a program aimed squarely at undermining drug cartels by enlisting community and regional financial institutions in the fight.
In what represents an aggressive step towards thwarting the sophisticated operations of cartel networks, FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki emphasized the importance of the new program. "Cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) have evolved into complex, adaptive threats that destabilize entire regions," Gacki said, according to FinCEN. "Their activities, including human trafficking and facilitating the flow of deadly fentanyl into the United States, pose a direct challenge to our national security."
The COMMAND series kicked off with events in McAllen and El Paso, Texas, cities that lie on the front lines of the nation's border-related struggles with both narcotics and human trafficking. By harnessing the power of local knowledge and banking infrastructure, the initiative seeks to strengthen the hand of law enforcement in these high-risk zones. FinCEN Deputy Director Jimmy Kirby spearheaded the El Paso engagement on June 27, meeting with law enforcement partners to bolster the region's capacity to respond to the scourge of drug-related crime.
Demonstrating the seriousness of the initiative, the FinCEN delegation also visited a key port of entry in El Paso, where operational hurdles are a daily reality for border agents. There, they engaged with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, deepening information-sharing relations. The COMMAND series acts in support of Executive Order 14157, which marked cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, a classification underscoring the gravity of the threat posed by these entities.
