FinCEN Issues Expanded Southwest Border Geographic Targeting Order

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an expanded Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to help law enforcement combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the United States. The GTO subjects certain money services businesses (MSBs)—which provide financial services outside of a formal bank—to enhanced reporting requirements with FinCEN. This important tool ensures law enforcement has access to critical data and can act quickly as they investigate illicit activity. “President Trump has directed his Administration to pursue the total elimination of terrorist drug cartels to keep Americans safe,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “For too long, cartels have abused the U.S. financial system to profit from poisoning Americans with deadly fentanyl. At Treasury, we are expanding our efforts to keep drug money out of the United States and to provide law enforcement with additional information to put these traffickers behind bars.” Today’s renewed and expanded GTO underscores the Trump Administration’s deep concern with the significant risk to the U.S. financial system presented by cartels, drug traffickers, and other criminal actors along the southwest border. It will require MSBs to file Currency Transaction Reports with FinCEN for cash transactions between $1,000 and $10,000 occurring in specific counties and ZIP codes, and will ensure that data is made available to law enforcement. This will empower investigators to develop additional leads and is expected to advance prosecutions through increased scrutiny on funds going to areas of concern. Further, this GTO will ensure local, state, and federal law enforcement can deny individuals and entities associated with drug trafficking organizations access to the U.S. financial system. Combatting drug cartels and stopping the flow of deadly drugs into the United States is one of the Administration’s highest priorities. As part of a whole-of-government approach to combatting cartels, FinCEN remains focused on leveraging all our available tools and authorities to better identify and counter these criminal activities. The GTO is expanded to New Mexico through the inclusion of three counties—Bernalillo County, Doña Ana County, and San Juan County—and to additional areas of Arizona: Maricopa County and Pima County. In total, the order covers the following geographic locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas: Maricopa County, Arizona Pima County, Arizona Santa Cruz County, Arizona Yuma County, Arizona California ZIP Codes (all within Imperial County): 92231, 92249, 92281, 92283 California ZIP Codes (all within San Diego County): 91910, 92101, 92113, 92117, 92126, 92154, 92173 Bernalillo County, New Mexico Doña Ana County, New Mexico San Juan County, New Mexico Cameron County, Texas El Paso County, Texas Hidalgo County, Texas Maverick County, Texas Webb County, Texas The terms of this GTO are effective March 7, 2026, through September 2, 2026. The GTO provides a 30-day compliance period for MSBs that were not required to report under the September 2025 version of the GTO, which will not need to begin filing reports until April 6, 2026. For all MSBs required to report under the GTO, the filing deadline is extended from the standard 15 days for Currency Transaction Reports to 30 days, for the entire period of the GTO.