On Thursday, GOP Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Roger Marshall of Kansas will submit legislation branding four Mexican drug cartels as international terrorist organizations.
The Reynosa/Los Metro area faction of the Gulf Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Los Zetas Cartel Del Noreste faction, and the Sinaloa Cartel would be subject to penalties under the National and Immigration Act under the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Bill which was obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller. The designation entitles the federal government to take the cartels’ assets and forbids Americans from providing “material assistance or resources” to them.
Additionally, the Secretary of State is empowered by the measure to designate additional cartels as foreign terrorist groups. Although none are drug cartels, the State Department now designates 68 organizations as foreign terrorist groups.
“Cartels are killing Americans at historic rates through the use of illegal substances and other harmful practices. We are going to take action by classifying the drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Groups because Joe Biden and the Democrats continue to do nothing,” Marshall stated in a statement to the Daily Caller. “This designation is required to further up our efforts to combat these cartels as they continue to breach our permeable southern border in a militaristic manner. We won’t give up in our campaign to stop the awful plague of fentanyl from causing havoc in Kansas and across the United States.”
In 2021, more than 105,000 Americans overdosed on drugs, with fentanyl being responsible for more than 71,000 of the deaths. Senate Republicans want to make distributing fentanyl a crime punishable by the death penalty, while House Republicans want to toughen punishments for drug trafficking. At the southern border, federal agents have confiscated a record-breaking amount of fentanyl—nearly 13,000 pounds—in Fiscal Year 2022.
“In the United States, fentanyl is one of the biggest causes of mortality for adolescents, and those who deliberately sell the extremely fatal substance are waging war on Americans. The terrible drug that is flooding Joe Biden’s open southern border has caused far too many people to suffer addiction and death; in order to end the catastrophe, these cartels must be held responsible and designated as terrorist organizations.” Scott continued, “I am happy to stand with Senator Marshall in addressing this situation and urging swift passage of this sensible measure by the Senate.”
The majority of fentanyl is made in China and then transported to Mexico. Drugs are mixed with it by cartels to lower the price of their goods, despite the fact that dosage errors usually result in fatalities. At a dose of two milligrams, the medication is regarded as deadly.
