Last year, financial institutions filed 1,246 Bank Secrecy Act reports that identified suspected fentanyl-related activity amounting to approximately $1.4 billion in suspicious transactions, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said today in a financial trend analysis.
The FinCEN review found that depository institutions and money services businesses in the U.S. accounted for 57% and 32% of fentanyl-related BSA reports, respectively. Mexico and China were the top two foreign countries identified in subject address fields of BSA reports analyzed, according to the agency. Nearly 32% of Mexico-based subjects were concentrated in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Jalisco.
Domestic sales of fentanyl appear to be conducted primarily through cash and peer-to-peer transfers, FinCEN said. BSA reports involving convertible virtual currency transactions primarily identified bitcoin payments, including in suspected darknet marketplace drug sales.
