Mexico limits dollar transactions to fight cartels

By The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 8:26 a.m.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has imposed limits on dollar transactions to fight money laundering as drug cartels ratchet up bloody attacks.

Tourists and Mexicans without bank accounts will be limited to transactions of up to $1,500 per month.

Finance Secretary Ernesto Cordero announced the plan Tuesday in a news conference.

The Treasury Department estimates about $10 billion per year in illicit cash could be feeding drug violence that has killed more than 22,700 people since a crackdown on the gangs began in late 2006.

On Monday, 12 federal police officers died in an ambush by reputed drug traffickers in the western state of Michoacan, while three officers were killed in a second attack in the northern state of Coahuila.

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