
There’s a false narrative about Mexican cartels supposedly controlling the entire drug business, which leads many Americans to believe that small dealers are the ones laundering money for the cartels. In reality, when a kilo of cocaine sells for over $200,000 in the U.S., only around $50,000 is sent back to the cartels. When it comes to fentanyl, the margins are even more extreme. Billions of dollars remain inside the United States. The government knows this money helps keep certain financial markets stable—or at least that’s the excuse often given. When the UN suggested penalizing the financial institutions involved in laundering these funds, the response was that some of them are so large and influential that acting against them could destabilize the financial system.
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