PHILADELPHIA, USA – On December 3, 2024 the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in partnership with Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (CI), held the ninth event of its Promoting Regional Outreach to Educate Communities on the Threat of Fentanyl (PROTECT) series of the FinCEN Exchange program.
The event brought together public and private sector representatives in the Philadelphia area to discuss ways to deepen collaboration against the illicit trafficking of fentanyl, which continues to threaten the nation’s security, economy, communities, and families. Just last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the sentencing of an individual to federal prison for charges related to the trafficking of fentanyl and other narcotics.
“During the event, financial institutions briefed on emerging trends and typologies they have observed regarding fentanyl-related money laundering; federal law enforcement discussed the threat posed by illegal fentanyl trafficking in the surrounding areas of Philadelphia; and FinCEN presented on precursor chemicals involved in fentanyl-related illicit finance. FinCEN encourages financial institutions to carefully review its August 2019 and June 2024 advisories on the trafficking of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic opioids and the precursor chemicals and associated manufacturing equipment needed to synthesize these deadly drugs,” said a FinCEN and IRS-CI press release.
FinCEN Exchange is a voluntary public-private partnership that convenes relevant stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. FinCEN Exchange aims to protect our national security and our citizens from harm by combatting money laundering and its related crimes, including terrorism, through public-private dialogue that encourages, enables, and acknowledges industry focus on high-value and high-impact activities. FinCEN Exchange began in 2017 and was codified as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.
To date, FinCEN and CI have co-hosted PROTECT events in the following cities: Boston, MA; Tucson, AZ; Miami, FL; Portland, OR; Denver, CO; New York, NY; Charlotte, NC; and El Paso, TX.
Tuesday’s event marks the second time in three months that FinCEN officials have visited the Philadelphia area to discuss illicit finance. In September, separate from FinCEN’s PROTECT FinCEN Exchange efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking, FinCEN Director Gacki met with small business owners and other stakeholders in the Philadelphia area about the Corporate Transparency Act -a bipartisan law enacted to curb illicit finance by supporting law enforcement efforts.
“Promoting Regional Outreach to Educate Communities on the Threat of Fentanyl” (or PROTECT) is a planned series of ten FinCEN Exchange sessions held in 2024 in US cities highly impacted by the opioid epidemic as part of the Treasury Department’s Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force, which is in partnership with IRS Criminal Investigation.
The series is specifically designed to work with regional and local financial institutions that are deeply connected to their communities and offer unique perspectives on the opioid crisis. This series of FinCEN Exchanges focuses on how law enforcement can best support efforts by financial institutions to monitor activity that may be tied to the illicit trafficking of fentanyl. At these exchanges, Federal officials brief on information critical to tracking these illicit financial flows, including typologies and red-flag indicators of fentanyl-related activity, and discuss what types of information are particularly valuable when financial institutions report suspicious activity.
The PROTECT series was launched in collaboration with other government partners, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the US Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, various US Attorney’s Offices, and local law enforcement agencies.
