Senior US Treasury official to visit Colombia, Mexico this week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Treasury Department official is traveling to Colombia and Mexico this week, a U.S. Treasury Department official told Reuters, as the United States seeks to counter money laundering and the smuggling of fentanyl to the country.

Acting Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control Lisa Palluconi's travel, first reported by Reuters, comes as the United States has sought to fight the U.S. fentanyl crisis, including through the imposition of sanctions.

The official said Palluconi's meetings in Mexico City will touch on the lethal narcotic, which is trafficked into the United States, often across the porous U.S.-Mexico border, and easily manufactured from chemicals sourced in China.

Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 and over 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2023.

The Treasury official said the department coordinates closely with the Mexican government on sanctions, including on action earlier this month that targeted a network it accused of generating millions of dollars benefiting Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which it said is responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other drugs trafficked to the United States.

Palluconi will visit an event hosted by the Association of Banks in Mexico that will focus on safeguarding the integrity of the U.S. and Mexican financial systems as well as economic prosperity and sanctions implementation.

While in Bogota, Palluconi will give keynote remarks at the second United States-Colombia Joint Summit on Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Compliance, the official said, adding that the U.S. and Colombia have coordinated on numerous sanctions actions targeting major kingpins, cartels and their networks since the 1990s.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)