Treasury Department working to stop vicious cycle of drugs, money laundering

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Follow the money.

That advice from "Deep Throat" — the Washington Post's source during the Watergate scandal, later revealed to be an FBI official named Mark Felt — is just as relevant today in the fight against fentanyl.

And officials in the U.S. Treasury Department, working with banks across the country, are trying to disrupt a partnership of convenience between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese money laundering organizations.

According to Treasury Department , Mexican drug cartels sell U.S. dollars earned from the drug trade to Chinese money laundering organizations in the U.S., because Mexico restricts deposits of dollars in its banks.

The Chinese money launderers, in turn, sell the dollars to people in China who are looking to evade that country's restrictions o