A letter from 21 state attorneys general requests that President Joe Biden list the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, and other similarly situated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorists organizations (FTO’s).
This would grant state and federal law enforcement agencies power to freeze cartel assets, deny entry to cartel members, and allow prosecutors to pursue tougher punishments against those who provide material to support the cartels, mainly China who sells the raw materials needed for the cartels to manufacture these synthetic opioids.
It was argued further that these cartels should be listed as FTOs because of their diversification into the avocado trade, gasoline prices, gold mines and even supermarkets. It was pointed out that the Kingpin Act focuses too narrowly on financial transactions with Significant Foreign Narcotics traffickers and because the cartels are operating in "markets" outside of narcotics, it is easy for those involved to escape designation.
"Alaska experienced a 102.% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2017-2021 (the most recent data available)," said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, who signed the letter. "In that same timeframe, the deaths resulting from a fentanyl overdose rose by 417.9%. In 2021, 57.3% of the overdose deaths involved fentanyl. Alaska also experienced significant increases in the amount of fentanyl seized in illegal drug trafficking into our state. These drugs are traced back to drug cartels operating out of Mexico. So the impact has been a greater loss of life from overdose deaths, and greater resources needing to be devoted to stopping this illegal activity in order to protect lives."
The listing is not about state efforts, "but is about giving the federal government more tools to combat this issue," Taylor said.
According to the White House archives, the Kingpin Act became law in December 1999 and was designed to “deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and operatives access to the U.S. financial system and to prohibit all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals.” The Kingpin Act authorizes the president of the United States to take these actions if a person is determined to have taken a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.
The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that divisions across the U.S. have seen overdose deaths skyrocket, especially those caused by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl. Recently, the DEA reported that overdose deaths had topped 100,000 for the first time in a year period.
Earlier this month, Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador spoke at a press conference in Mexico City and addressed the proposals from American congressmen to use military action in Mexico against the drug cartels, NBC News reported. Lopez Obrador did not take kindly to these requests, believing that U.S. military action on his nation’s ground would be a threat to their sovereignty.
“We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a foreign government’s armed forces,” Lopez Obrador said. He also said that if this “aggression” persists from the Republicans, “we will make a call to not vote for that party.”
In January, U.S. Rep. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) introduced a resolution to take military action in Mexico. The bill would “authorize the use of U.S. Armed Forces against those responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the United States or carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Dallas Morning News reported that in an interview with Crenshaw, the congressman conveyed that he is getting more traction with his bill to authorize the use of military force against the cartels, which would terminate after five years.
U.S. Sen.Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was on a Fox News segment March 9, where he addressed his desire to list the Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“They’ve been terrorizing America, the drug cartels, I want to terrorize them," Graham said. "I want to create a model where they can’t sleep at night.” Graham went on to highlight how severe the fentanyl epidemic has become and to explain how listing drug cartels as FTOs would give the United States government the authorization and force needed to combat them.
“By making a drug cartel a Foreign Terrorist Organization, it allows the Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies to bring cases against their co-conspirators in China,” Graham said.
