English.news.cn   2010-08-27 11:20:11

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2010-08/27/c_13465457.htm

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed Thursday a new package of measures as part of a national strategy against money laundering to fight organized crime.

The measures include limiting cash transactions amounting to more than 100,000 pesos (7,700 dollars) at a time in the purchase of luxury items, controlling purchases of real estate in cash, and requiring vendors to monitor suspicious activities, among others.

The package also proposed improving the use of intelligence information to supervise concrete operations in international transactions.

Calderon said these measures were aimed at expanding Mexico's capacity to limit big-ticket cash purchases of illegal money in Mexican pesos or U.S. dollars.

"With this strategy we took a transcendental step to weaken criminal activities. It is about cutting financing to the criminals, as they require a lot of economic resources to finance their activities," Calderon said.

Organized crime and drug trafficking are among the most urgent concerns in Mexico and tackling these problems has become a priority of Calderon's administration since its inauguration in December 2006.