The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has delivered to Mexican banks a guide to detect extortion through the banking system, mainly when it occurs from prisons, according to the Ministry of Finance. The so-called Guide for Obligated Subjects of the Financial Sector in Monitoring the Transactional Profile of Clients and/or Users: Cases Related to Extortion has been designed with the collaboration of financial entities to locate clear patterns with which this type of crime occurs through banking instruments, as well as practices to monitor and mitigate these actions.
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“The document is based on strategic analyses carried out by the UIF, through which transactional patterns associated with extortion schemes operated from inside Penitentiary Centers were identified. Among the findings, the receipt of electronic transfers with recurring concepts and the accelerated movement of resources through mobile applications stand out, which concentrated around 70% of the operations observed in the analyzed case,” the UIF explained in the statement.
Extortion has become a recurring crime in Mexico in recent years. According to the latest available data, this practice has increased by 61.2% in the last 10 years. Although a good part of the victims do not report it, 87% of the reported cases occur through phone calls. One of the most frequent extortion models involves people in the penitentiary system calling victims to ask for money, through bank transactions that happen very quickly. “The Guide incorporates warning signs, indicators for analysis, and recommendations for monitoring and risk assessment, as well as strategic analysis practices and mitigating measures against identified risks,” adds the UIF.
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Banks will have 60 days to internally approve these new protection measures and then will have another 60-day period to implement them. The document is not public and has been delivered directly to banking entities. The administration of Claudia Sheinbaum has insisted in recent months on implementing measures that reduce the impact of extortion in Mexico. In November, Congress approved the General Law to Prevent, Investigate, and Sanction Crimes related to Extortion, which deepens the penalties for this crime and also includes the digital modalities used by various groups to extort. The Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, had explained then that monitoring bank accounts has allowed authorities to detect where resources are concentrated, block phone numbers, and freeze assets of accounts related to this crime.
The Mexican government considers that resources obtained through extortion are of illicit origin and with the new legal measures investigates this crime ex officio, that is, without a complainant involved. “Resources obtained through this conduct are usually subject to operations intended to hide or disguise their origin, to later be placed, dispersed, and moved through the financial system and incorporated into the formal economy,” points out the UIF.
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