U.S. to redouble efforts to monitor El Chapo's financial operations

The U.S. Treasury Department will redouble its efforts to monitor all financial operations linked to Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, after he escaped from prison this month.

"It is clear that we must keep up the pressure now that El Chapo is out to tackle any support network that he is using and is not on our list," said Andrea Gacki, acting deputy director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department.

At the ninth Latin American conference on anti-money laundering and financial crimes, the U.S. official said that her government also surveils the operations of the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas and other criminal groups.

"We are also concerned about the emergence of new criminal groups, especially the New Generation Jalisco Cartel and their allies The Cuinis. These groups have grown rapidly, especially through violations and corruption, and are known as the most dangerous," she added.

Salvador Mejia, Partner-Managing Director at Asimetrics, a consultancy specializing in measures to prevent money laundering, said that the escape of El Chapo made clear that there was no control over his financial operations.

"The problem is that we can not maintain a policy of arresting drug lords without going against their finances too. Guzmán's fortune, estimated in 1.5 billion dollars, is somewhere in the financial or economic system of Mexico, the United States, Europe or Colombia. All his assets are safe and until authorities have the capacity to attack these financial structures we can hardly talk about an adequate fight against organized crime", the specialist added.