Reported by Ernesto Cabral

Colorado money service businesses, such as check-cashing businesses and money forwarding services, filed a record number of reports last year of possible money laundering by people using their services, official data shows.

In 2023, money services businesses flagged more than 22,000 transactions in Colorado they suspected were intended to convert money from crimes into usable cash, according to data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. That’s a 40% increase from the previous year and a 1,009% surge since 2014.

The increase comes as federal authorities are eyeing the role money services businesses play in allowing fentanyl dealers — many associated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels in Mexico — to illegally send profits back home in hard-to-trace transactions.

Since 2021, Colorado has ranked among the top 5 states with the most suspicious activity reports issued by MSBs for money laundering suspected activity. “Elevated suspicious activity reporting does reflect a genuine increase in certain types of criminal activity,” according to a Thomson Reuters Institute report from last year.

Read full report: https://coloradosun.com/2024/06/06/colorado-fentanyl-money-laundering/