Dirty money washed in Mexico represents 3.6% of GDP

$10 billion U.S. dollars annually, reports nation's Cámara de Diputados

Guadalajara -
A study conducted by Mexico's Cámara de Diputados has concluded that drug traffickers and organized crime wash at least $10 billion U.S. dollars annually in this nation, an amount representing 3.6% of its gross domestic product (known here as Producto Interno Bruto, or PIB).

The Cámara is Mexico's lower congressional chamber, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The untaxed, off-the-books income is the product of narcotics trafficking, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, prostitution, human trafficking, gun running and a host of other criminal activities, many of which generate violence. "The ill-gotten proceeds can then easily be transferred to any jurisdiction, and in any form," the Cámara's published report said.

In 2012 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that all told, criminal enterprises may account for as much as 5% of the world's gross domestic product.

Former Mexican president Felipe Calderón told a European audience last November that $20 billion dollars a year flow into Mexico from the United States as the result of drug purchases by Americans. "In the face of that mountain of money," he said, "the people of Mexico are struggling to confront" organized crime and narcotics trafficking (Mexico's incoming PRI government pays little attention to marijuana legalization efforts in U.S.). The U.S. State Dept. recently reported the real figure is higher - some $30 billion annually (Mexican drug cartels operate in 1,286 U.S. cities).

In October 2011 a U.S. Treasury official told a House committee investigating the international drug trade that traffickers wash $39 billion a year in the United States. Based upon an approximate 2011-2012 U.S. GDP of $15 trillion, that $39 billion represented a paltry 0.0026 of American economic output - hardly measurable when compared to the enormous extent of money laundering in Mexico.

The Cámara report concluded that money laundering can be checked only with intense cooperation by banking and financial systems around the world - a solution which many will ridicule based upon recent events (HSBC to pay $2 billion for laundering Mexican drug profits; U.S. agents help Mexican drug cartels launder millions in dirty profits, reports New York Times).

Jan. 20 - Weapons seizures in Mexico soared under Calderón
Jan. 11 - Banxico chief: grim prognosis for U.S. economic growth

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