US lawmakers urge Trump to press Xi on Chinese money laundering tied to Mexican cartels

US lawmakers urge Trump to press Xi on Chinese money laundering tied to Mexican cartels Congressional hearing witnesses encourage US president to tackle alleged fentanyl supply chain crisis linked to Chinese money laundering “I want to be very clear, Chinese money laundering networks have become the financial fuel for cartels to poison Americans and threaten our borders, we’re seeing a Silk Road of crime across the Americas,” said Leland Lazarus, founder and chief executive officer at Lazarus Consulting and a former US diplomat, who testified at the hearing. According to the United States’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, between 2020 and 2024, around US$312 billion in suspicious activity was associated with cartel-linked Chinese money laundering activity, said Dan Meuser, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “More concerning, that figure likely represents only a fraction of the true scale, given it only captures suspicious activity that was detected and reported,” added Meuser, a Republican from Pennsylvania. “These networks are also key to the cartel’s procurement of precursor chemicals that produce fentanyl.” The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The hearing titled Converging Criminal Enterprises: Chinese Money Laundering Networks and Cartel Financing in the US Financial System comes amid the ongoing fentanyl crisis in America, which has killed thousands.