Illicit actors seek tools that both conceal the source of funds and handle very large amounts through the financial system and parallel methods. Cryptocurrencies and related techno-finance services satisfy those requirements by enabling international fund transfers while limiting access to sender and receiver information. Government alerts and sanctions identify cryptocurrencies, music services, and timeshare hotel contracts as mechanisms exploited for money laundering. International analysts estimate that such activity can generate between $18 billion and $44 billion annually in Mexico. The 2025 DEA report links cryptocurrency use to laundering of drug trafficking proceeds, and prosecutions in 2025 illustrate these methods in practice.
People who engage in illicit activities want to incorporate the money they obtain into the formal market, and to do so, they look for tools that meet two conditions: concealing the source of the funds and, since the amounts are very large, using the financial system and parallel methods, explains Luis Perez de Acha, a lawyer specializing in money laundering.
Money laundering organizations use them to launder drug trafficking proceeds, according to the latest 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment report published by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). There were plenty of examples throughout 2025. In May, a Mexican lawyer pleaded guilty in the United States to laundering $52 million for the Sinaloa Cartel. When he realized the FBI was targeting the accounts of the shell companies he used to launder drug proceeds, he moved his money-laundering network and assets into the world of cryptocurrencies.
Each of these events can conceal a technique with which criminals turn their illicit money into real estate. In recent years, the United States Department of the Treasury, through alerts and inclusions on the sanctions list, has painted a new picture in which cryptocurrencies, music, and timeshare hotel contracts are used by criminal networks for money laundering. International analysts estimate that in Mexico this activity can generate from $18 billion to $44 billion annually.
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