By South China Morning Post | Created at 2026-06-09 21:00:25 | Updated at 2026-06-10 00:58:57
3 hours ago
Chinese money laundering networks were accused of being “financial fuel” for the Mexican cartels at a congressional hearing on Tuesday, where witnesses urged US President
Donald Trump to prioritise the issue at his next face-to-face meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“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.
Unravelling China’s role in the US fentanyl crisis
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.
