Jun.18, 2010, 5:54 PM

Jun. 18--Mexico is following suit on what's long been a successful ploy by the U.S. in crippling notorious felons. Sometimes law enforcers must take a roundabout route to cripple their activities.

This week the Mexican government announced it hopes to put a dent in money laundering by drug cartels. It's setting strict limits on the deposit and exchange of U.S. dollars in its banks.

An estimated $10 billion U.S. dollars go south into Mexico each year; the money comes from illegal drug sales on this side of the border. Cartels have been exchanging the U.S. dollars for Mexican money, that's money laundering.

The U.S. used money as a way to stop the notorious gangster Al Capone, and other mafia crime bosses since the 1930s. The feds got Capone, whose business card read, "used-furniture dealer" for tax evasion in 1931. Capone would later die in prison.

Mexico, of late, has had some successes in capturing a number of drug kingpins and others high up in the well-structured, well-financed and well-armed Mexican cartels.

But arrests breed new kingpins. So it's a good move in attacking the way these cartels do business -- making it difficult for cartels to trade in dollars.

The government has announced it will limit individual bank-account holders to an exchange of no more than $4,000 a month. Those without accounts may exchange up to $1,500.

Companies working along the U.S. border, or in tourist areas, may exchange up to $7,000 a month.

Mexican officials estimate some $10 billion in surplus money has been detected in its banks. Mexican Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero told the Los Angeles Times, "For the last few years we've seen the Mexican banking system receiving a very large amount of U.S. dollars in cash, far beyond what could be explained by the activities and dynamics of the economy in Mexico."

Officials say since 98 percent of Mexican citizens make less than the new exchange limits, there should have no affect on the regular households.

By limiting U.S. dollar transactions in its banks, Mexico looks to be striking a hard blow to the drug cartels' ability to spend its ill-gotten money.