FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Following last week’s release of a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Treasury that would provide federal law enforcement with an important new tool to crack down on drug cartel cash smuggling, Coconino County Sheriff Bill Pribil joined Navajo County Sheriff KC Clark, Coconino County Attorney David Rozema, and Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon in releasing the following statement:

“The proposed new anti-cash smuggling rule is a huge victory for law enforcement and the people of Arizona. For far too long, traffickers have exploited this cash smuggling loophole to funnel money into Mexico.

Smuggled money directly fuels the drug cartels’ violence and circumvents our criminal justice system. This new rule is a result of Ann Kirkpatrick’s efforts in Congress pushing for this change, including her introduction of the Anti-Cash Smuggling Act of 2026, and will help us combat cartel violence and keep our communities safer.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a new proposed rule that would add prepaid access devices to the definition of “monetary instrument,” effectively requiring individuals crossing the U.S. border to declare prepaid cards as cash. Current regulations do not require disclosure of the cash value of these cards, creating an enormous vulnerability that traffickers have increasingly used to move money across U.S. borders.

In 2026, Ann Kirkpatrick introduced the Anti-Cash Smuggling Act of 2026, a measure that would have closed the legal loophole that has allowed the cartels to use stored value and prepaid cards to smuggle money across the border. She championed the issue in Washington, meeting repeatedly with law enforcement, private industry, and other lawmakers. The proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Treasury owes much to her efforts to make cash smuggling a priority.

Federal law enforcement has been stepping up their efforts against money smuggling, which is an important step towards shutting down these criminal organizations and reducing the violence at the border. The drug cartels rely on money smuggled from the United States to run their organizations, and they have been able to sidestep U.S. law by transporting massive, unknown sums of cash across the border stored on prepaid cards.

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