Lawmakers discuss foreign policy tools to stem fentanyl crisis

Lawmakers discussed potential foreign policy changes to counter the fentanyl crisis during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, emphasizing the need to crack down on Chinese and Mexican officials to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. 

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), most of the fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. is produced in illicit labs in Mexico using chemicals from China.

“We need to use every foreign policy tool we have to stop the flow of fentanyl into our country. This means asking Mexico to do more to disrupt criminal organizations from producing and trafficking fentanyl,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the committee chair, said.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sept. 20, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died of drug poisonings or overdoses in the 12-month period ending in January 2022. Of those deaths, 67 percent involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.

The DEA has pinpointed the sources of the “vast majority” of fentanyl coming into the U.S. as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, both from Mexico, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said. 

After receiving chemicals from China, according to Milgram, cartels mass produce fentanyl powder, then press the powder into fake prescription pills, often selling it on social media in the U.S.

“We are now seizing fentanyl in all 50 states and it is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced,” Milgram said. “For all these reasons, our top operational priority right now is to defeat these two cartels.”

Many Republican senators blamed the fentanyl trafficking on the Biden administration for not taking more action to stop immigration at the southern border. 

“Mexican cartels leverage their drug trafficking profits to acquire sophisticated weapons, corrupt officials, challenge the authority of the Mexican state and commit terrible atrocities,” the committee’s ranking member, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), said. “The same cartels are profiting from and prolonging the illegal migration crisis caused by the Biden administration’s weak enforcement of border security and immigration controls.”

Todd Robinson, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the Biden administration and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are prepared to “bring the full power of American diplomacy to this challenge.” 

Robinson said that regulations should be comprehensive, as synthetic drugs like fentanyl can be produced anywhere using completely legal chemicals and equipment. 

“We hope Mexico will invest more in combating the synthetic drug threat from prevention, treatment and recovery to the investigations and prosecutions,” Robinson said. “The United States remains committed to meaningful counter-narcotics cooperation with the [People’s Republic of China], despite the PRC’s limited willingness to engage on the issue of late.”

Biden addressed the fentanyl crisis in his State of the Union address last week, pledging to launch more penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking, work with couriers to inspect packages for drugs and put more drug detection machines at the border. 

During the hearing, Menendez expressed his concerns about lacking cooperation from Mexican officials.

“I don’t know how many more lives have to be lost for Mexico to get engaged,” he said. 

Menendez and other lawmakers said that expanding sanctions on China could be an option to force cooperation in combating synthetic opioid trafficking. 

“If China is complicit in supplying fentanyl that comes to the United States, then we need to consider an appropriate sanctions regime,” Risch said. “China’s complacency could have dire consequences for the future of its nation.”