US authorities have charged 24 individuals in relation to an alleged money laundering operation involving Chinese shadow banks and Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

The underground money exchanges in China purportedly assisted the cartel in laundering $50 million from drug trafficking yields, primarily through fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine imported between 2019 and 2023, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in a Tuesday statement.

This California-based network allegedly enabled cartel affiliates to access the laundered funds within Mexico and other locations, the DOJ remarked.

The DOJ further elaborated that drug traffickers exploited these underground money exchanges to meet the high demand for US dollars among Chinese nationals. These Chinese citizens often resort to informal routes for transferring funds out of China, where annual limits are capped at $50,000.

“The US dollar seller provides details of a Chinese bank account for the buyer to deposit currency (renminbi). Upon confirmation of the deposit, the equivalent amount in US dollars is released to the buyer in the US,” outlined the DOJ.

The defendants now face accusations of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine, in addition to money laundering charges.

In the course of the probe, law enforcement officials seized $5 million in narcotics profits, along with 137 kilograms of cocaine, 42 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 3,000 ecstasy pills, as per the DOJ.

Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram stated, “Unyielding greed and monetary pursuit drive the Mexican drug cartels responsible for the worst drug crisis in American history.”

“Laundering drug proceeds equips the Sinaloa cartel with the means to produce and channel their lethal substances into the US,” Milgram noted.

“The DEA’s paramount operational goal is to safeguard American lives by dismantling the cartels and their support networks.”

China’s Ministry of Public Security announced via social media on Wednesday the detention of an individual linked to “drug-related money laundering” following a tip-off from the US. “This incident marks a recent success in Sino-US anti-drug collaboration,” the ministry noted on Weibo.