(The Center Square) – Assistance from one of North Carolina’s 100 county sheriffs helped a freshman congressman craft legislation to assist law enforcement’s fight against international cartels.

If passed, the Financial Intelligence and National Security Act – FINS Act for short – would amend Section 5312 of Title 31, classifying wire transfer service providers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.

“This is a vital step in addressing the national drug crisis that is taking American lives every single day,” Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said.

U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., author of the bill, said drug traffickers, human smugglers and terrorist financiers use wire transfer companies such as Western Union and Ria as “a backdoor into our financial system.”

“It’s been a gift to the worst people in the world – and Washington let it happen,” Harrigan said. “The FINS Act shuts that door. It brings accountability, oversight and puts our national security first.”

Harrigan says billions of dollars are moving with little to no oversight. He says it funds fentanyl, human trafficking and organized crime.

In examples, Harrigan said three cellphone stores in Ohio laundered $44 million in cartel drug proceeds. Fake names were used, and heroin and fentanyl profits went across the border. In Atlanta, $40 million was used in drug money for trafficking and organized crime, he said.

In Oakland, the representative from the 10th Congressional District said, a shop called Rincon Musical used WhatsApp to shift thousands of dollars in street drug profits. A woman in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, Harrigan said, got what appeared to be legitimate transfers even though it was thousands of dollars for a cartel from fentanyl and heroin sold in American cities.

“This bill requires wire services to follow the same anti-money laundering rules as banks – so these kinds of operations can’t happen,” Harrigan said.