On April 29 the Mexican Senate approved an anti-money laundering bill, reports OEM. The law will set penalties of up to 16 years for people and organizations that handle illegal proceedings and fail to report it to the proper authorities. It will also put in place restrictions on commercial transactions that include up front payments of large amounts of money, particularly real estate and objects of art. Additionally, credit card companies, casinos, insurance companies, as well as banks and other such businesses will be obliged to establish anti-money laundering procedures to alert authorities. This controversial measure aims to reduce the maneuverability of organized crime. A senator from the ruling party, Partido de Accion Nacional (National Action Party – PAN), stated that $25 billion dollars is handled by drug trafficking every year in Mexico alone.

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