Members of the house suggest participation in the “very unlikely” transnational fight against fentanyl.
Members of the House appropriations committee questioned Mexico’s commitment to stop the northbound flow of the synthetic drug, which contributed to the opioid deaths of at least 70, 000 Americans next year, as a result of this week’s revelations at a hearing held in Washington, D.C.
The state of our connection with Mexico may be far from ideal, according to U.S. Rep. Hal Rodgers, R-Kentucky, head of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, who noted that when the DEA encounters challenges like obtaining permits in a timely manner to work in Mexico and there are excellent permits the Mexican authorities fails to work on.
Added U. S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D- Pennsylvania,” This is where the foam hits the road when we talk about the supply of fentanyl into this country. It’s coming from China, it’s going to Mexico, it’s coming here and it’s killing our children. British DEA agents who work in Mexico are being denied work permits because Mexico is trying to stop the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.
The two international legal businesses that the DEA has identified as the primary fentanyl manufacturers to the United States are also waiting for a Mexican entry permit, according to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, who confirmed to committee members on Tuesday.
She told the committee,” We are committed to working shoulder to shoulder with people across the globe who may operate with DEA in agreement on this battle.” ” I thought ( FBI ) director ( Christopher ) Wray said very well when he said the cooperation has been uneven, that we need to do much more and I would echo that.
” We are waiting for those 13 permits, I believe one has been pending for eight months. However, we know the price that we pay as a state when we wait that long.”
The DEA has officials assigned to various countries around the world, but Mexico is a key person not just in stemming the flow of fentanyl, but likewise a myriad of other illegal substances like heroin, meth, cocaine and pot.
Anyone who cares about our efforts to combat the cartels should be far from appreciative of this lack of engagement, Rodriguez said at the hearing, and the absurd bureaucratic delay in approving visa applications and flagrantly disregarding extradition requests for cartel members.
Regardless of where the agents are, Milgram said that they will continue to pursue prosecutions against transnational criminal organizations that export fentanyl to the United States. This includes identifying Asian businesses that supply precursor chemicals, Mexican drug traffickers who operate fentanyl production facilities, and business owners and institutions that launder money from other countries.
El Paso to play bigger role in global narcotics interdiction
Subcommittee member U. S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R- Texas, pressed the DEA about its commitment to expand state and local law enforcement partnerships to combat fentanyl trafficking and distribution.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Milgram reinforced her commitment to local drug task forces.
She claimed that the federal government is deploying a new, multi-agency task force to the border to combat cartels.
The new Trident Directorate’s main focus will be fentanyl, which it will be headquartered in El Paso and New York City.
She informed the subcommittee that as we stand up these Trident teams, one is being set up along the border, we will use our El Paso office because we have a lot of capacity there, and another one will be in New York. These will be state, local, federal teams that also have the intelligence community and the defense community. One of the ways that the DEA has moved on to the next stage, where we can use every piece of information to combat this global threat, is through that example.
Trident members will engage in data- mapping and information sharing with a number of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence organizations, according to a document Milgram submitted to the subcommittee.
Milgram also made the announcement last summer that the El Paso Intelligence Center in Fort Bliss, Texas, would be using a joint lab to track drug trafficking between individual cartels. Additionally, the lab is intended to inform law enforcement of novel, potentially fatal synthetic drugs.
