Cubans based in Cancun linked to Major Money Laundering & NarcotraffickingThe arrest of a former local city mayor, who is presently a gubernatorial candidate in the high-risk Mexican State of Quintana Roo, has drawn attention to the risks posed by the large number of Cuban nationals (6000) residing in Cancun. Gregorio Sánchez Martinez [UID 457563] has been charged by Mexican authorities with money laundering, organised crime, and the funding of narcotics trafficking. His employment of Cuban expats living in Mexico, links to prominent senior Cuban PEPs, and his reputed role in the smuggling of migrants into the United States, demonstrate the undue influence that the Castro regime is believed to have in Mexico.
This is dangerous for US banks, for OFAC sanctions forbid any financial contacts with Cubans linked to the Government of Cuba, and a number of these individuals are now nationalised Mexican citizens or residents. I do not believe that OFAC will allow financial transactions with individuals who are under a blanket sanction, and who choose their new nationality for convenience, and not for political asylum.
Sánchez is married to a Cuban physician whose father is a retired Colonel in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, and he reportedly employed 150 Cuban nationals, many as 'security advisors," who were formerly military or government officials in Cuba. One of these security advisors, who is the nephew of the former Minister of the interior of Cuba, is himself under arrest, and accused of murder, in a case involving the assassination of a retired Mexican army officer sent to Quintana Roo to clean up the corruption and narcotics trafficking present in that area.
- Are any of my present bank customers, who hold Mexican passports, born in Cuba ? When were they naturalised ?
- What year was their passport issued ?
- What is their business in the United States?
- Is their Spanish definitely not Mexican vernacular ?
- What is the nature of their business ?
