MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities arrested 11 suspected money launderers during raids on 17 finance companies in the northern cities of Culiacan and Tijuana, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The money-laundering ring operated through a series of companies, some of which posed as authorized financial institutions while others were simply shell companies, the AG office said.

These companies “were disguised to appear as legitimate clients before certain formal institutions of the financial system in order to change (into pesos) large sums of dollars” from illicit activities, according to an official statement.

They later deposited the pesos in their bank accounts and subsequently transferred them to accounts in Culiacan and made payments to people with no apparent relationship to those companies.

Among the organizations forming part of the ring were currency exchanges and pawn shops in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, California.

Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa state, birthplace of many of Mexico’s drug kingpins, including fugitive Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman.

Tijuana is the seat of the cartel of the Arellano Felix brothers, a group that has dwindled following the capture or death of several of its main bosses and that is now battling the Sinaloa and Gulf outfits for control of its home turf.

Every year in Mexico some $16 billion are laundered, of which $10 billion are processed through the financial system and $6 billion through currency exchanges, federal prosecutors say. EFE