00:00The U.S. Department of the Treasury has placed new sanctions on people accused of working with a major Mexican cartel to scam Americans using timeshares.
00:11Four Mexicans and 13 Mexican companies face sanctions, accused of helping the cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion operate a timeshare fraud scheme.
00:20The scheme targeted U.S. timeshare owners with English speakers posing as U.S.-based brokers, lawyers, sales reps, and more.
00:28Then they would use various tactics to scam those owners out of money.
00:32The FBI says around 6,000 Americans lost nearly $300 million between 2019 and 2023.
00:40So what did these new sanctions do?
00:42It's been known as in Colombia is a civil death, a muerte civil, wherein once you're on this list, you and your family can't use regular money with any business that does business with the United States.
00:56And so you actually had cartel wives telling their husbands, well, you better figure something out.
01:01Go turn yourself in and get yourself off this list, because what good is all the money if I can't put my kid in private school?
01:07Jones says it's been a bit harder to measure the impact in Mexico, as it was in Colombia, and the objective is the same.
01:14The idea is to make their money useless, at least as it touches the U.S. banking system, financial system, any of that.
01:23And then anybody who does business with them, then potentially also becomes a target there for the U.S. banking system.
01:31This is the latest step the Trump administration is using to target Mexican cartels.
01:35The administration is also using American troops at the U.S. southern border and considering strikes against the gangs inside Mexico.
01:42For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.
01:45For more on biased straight facts, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com.
