The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation unit said on Thursday it has located 79 tax evasion fugitives in Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in the first year of a new extradition initiative.
The effort was made possible by a change in Mexico's tax laws in 2020 that made tax evasion a felony offense as part of a crackdown to improve weak tax collection. The reclassification paved the way for tax fugitives to be extradited to the United States.
Before this, tax crimes were non-extraditable offenses in Mexico, making it a haven for U.S. tax evaders. The IRS said that since June 2021, its Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) branch in Mexico City has extradited eight of the 79 individuals identified for possible prosecution in the United States.