More than 2,000 businesses in the Los Angeles Fashion District will be subject to stricter cash-transaction reporting requirements in an effort to halt suspected money laundering by drug cartels, an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday, October 2, 2014.

Known as a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) the wide-reaching measure comes three weeks after about 1,000 federal and local law-enforcement agents raided businesses in the area, arresting nine people and seizing tens of millions of dollars as part of long-running probe into money laundering for Mexican drug cartels. Garment businesses were allegedly helping cartels get money from drug sales in the U.S. back to Mexico, according to court documents.

BID Executive Director Kent Smith has been interviewed about the recent incidents by several media sources including the Associated Press, LA Times, LA Downtown News, San Francisco NPR, the National NPR and Univision.

"Nobody wants to see money laundering, least of all to drug cartels, but the reality is that a geographic targeting order is a very blunt instrument," said Kent Smith, executive director of the LA Fashion District business improvement district. "The challenge for us as a district is it basically sends a message that every business in the area is involved in money laundering, and that is far from the case." said Smith in an interview with reporters from the Wall Street Journal on October 3, 2014.