Senate banking Housing Urban Affairs committee to testify on how all. Addiction is affecting communities advocating for fentanyl awareness and legislative solutions to stop drug smuggling. This is just under two and a half hours. [inaudible conversations] Senate Committee on banking housing urban frizzle come to order. Thank your for joining us, the witnesses all you you in the audience and members of this committee. The fentanyl crisis is one of the gravest threats facing all of our communities. Every year, 5,000 ohioans die from unintentional Drug Overdoses. In 2022, a staggering 110,000 americans lost their lives as a result of an unintentional overdose. A moment ago mr. Dufour said in the hall its equival47 at least that going down every day. Imagine eachlo year losing a sitting of the size of dayton, ohio or north charleston, South Carolina or b or wilmington, north carolina. Behind all those numbers most tragically our stories stories of families torn apart appeared to losing teenagers do for the graduate high school, a grandparent stepping in to raise grandchildren. Matter where you come from pretty much everyone has a fentanyl story. It may be in your own family, it may be a neighbor, it may be a coworker. Weve all lost someone or know someone whos lost someone. A its a crisis that cuts across all geographic lines, and certainly across all partisan divides. Er its why it has been and will continue to be a top priority of this committee where we have taken bipartisan action. With Ranking Member scott and the entire Banking Committee and now 67 senate cosponsors, we worked in a bipartisan way to design a new sanctions programot the fend off fentanyl act, that can help reduce the flow of fentanyl into our communities. On this committee our purview is often money and we are using that authority to hit the cartels and chemical suppliersrt directly where it hurts, their bank accounts. The cartels that traffic these drugs from mexico are our bill goes directly after those billions. China is the main source of precursor chemicals for illicit cartels who then traffic fentanyl into the United States. Chinese entities also then help launder the money for the Mexican Cartels. The new economic sanctions authority and Money Laundering penalties created by the fend off fentanyl act will go after all of these components of the illicit fentanyl supply chain and help stop more of it at its source before it ever reaches our communities. Now, when we talk about sanctions regimes and directing the Treasury Department to block assets the discussion can get pretty technical, and pretty sterile, awfully quickly. Its why the focus of todays hearing is on the human toll that illicit fentanyl takes on our families, our friends, our neighbors. Our focus today is w matters and why we must finish the job and get this bill signed into law. Today, we are going to hear from mr. Jason jelly roll deford to testify about his personal experience in communities that have been devastated by the addiction crisis. I have jelly roll testifies at Senate Banking hearing on your 2024 bingo cards. But few speak and sing as eloquently as openly, as, shallco we say viscerally about addiction as he does. There is a reason why americans concerts. He has a connection with people based on shared pain, shared challenges shared hope. Today we will also hear fromtional president of the fraternal order of police, mr. Patrick yoes, about his members work on the front line of the response. Mr. Yoes thank you for your work with her office and a whole host of thanks from the active so much else. Law enforcemes is crisis every day in their work and one of the best ways we can support them is preventing fentanyl from flowing freely through the communities they serve. And mr. Christopher urben, a veteran dea agent, to describe the trail fentanyl and its proceeds take. Thank you for joining us. This crisis has many dimensions including Border Security Public Health, demand reduction, and economic stability. Everyone has a role to play, anding to make this problem completely disappear. We arent or shouldnt be in the business of false promises. What we can do is take an all of the above approach, to reduce as much pain and save as many lives as possible. Fentanyl is often mixed with other substances, includingrs cocaine and xylazine. I am a cosponsor of the combatting illicit xylazine act, which establishes penalties for manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing xylazine for illicit use. We should also pass my bipartisan power act, which would provide state and local Law Enforcement with high tech portable fentanyl screening devices. I thank president yoes organization for their support of that legislation. I have also demanded that the Treasury Department hold the governments of china and mexico accountable for curbing illicit fentanyl trafficking. Its clear the mexican and chinese goverents are not doing enough to combat the flow of fentanyl. We need specific benchmarks for combating fentanyl trafficking and the Opioid Crisis, and more information regarding the role of the recently announced Treasury Department counterfentanyl strike force. It is vital that we effectively monitor the administrationsrts to stop fentanyl at its source. I call on my colleagues to use their membership on committees to explore legislation that will help us treat addiction improve our Public Health response, and stop the trafficking of illicit fentanyl into our communities. A crisis this massive and multifaceted demands our sustained focus. That is my pledge as chair of this committee and my pledge to people of ohio. That starts with getting our bill signed into law. Fend off fentanyl passed out of our committee unanimously. Written by senator scott and the understaffed principally. I think m colleagues would all agree we are a Diverse Group theres not a lot we can find complete unanimity on. But we were able to find Common Ground on an issue vital to all of our states and our country. And our colleagues in the senate agreed passing this with overwhelming bipartisan support as part of the senate ndaa. The house needs to finish the job, and get this bill to the president s desk. This is our chance to show the people we serve that we can Work Together we can put partisanship aside we can take action on things that really matter to their lives. Families and Law Enforcement in all of our communities are counting on us. Lets get this done. Senator scott. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for each of you to be willing to testify before street and thank you for the shout out last night at the concert. So really, its so important for americans to come together around such an important issue ending the fentanyl crisis that is devastating family after family after family. I think specifically of alan shao in charleston, South Carolina a friend of mine who lost his son alan shao ii, to fentanyl. The devastation that has ravished the family is immeasurable and anything that we can do as a body to make common sense reforms to hold thos stop the cash flow that funds fentanyl is absolutely essentialas that we get it done right now. And unfortunately were here today having another hearing one fend off fentany friends on the other side of the capitol, because of the shenanigans at the end of last year, did not get the bill included in legislation that would have made this, i believe law already. E it is incredibly unfortunate that playing politics is still a game played in washington especially on something so important. And i think as the chairman just sait agree on very much, most consistently but i will say, having 23 of us vote unanimously on this committee having 68 ofly us on the same piece of legislation, and not to have a chance to get it done its not just frustrating to those of us on this committee, those of us in congress it is incredibly frustrating to the people of our country who watch the devastation eat away at their communities. Congress needs to come together to stop the Mexican Cartels chinese chemical suppliers, and Money Laundering organizations production and trafficking of fentanyl resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of americans. Put simply, we should all value the health, safety, and security of americans. When i think about the path of destruction fentanyl has carved across the United States, its truly jawdropping. Preliminary cdc data shows that in 2022, 75,000 americans lost their lives to fentanyl. In my home state thats 1,500 south carolinians in 2022 alone. The National Death toll equates to losing the entire city of wilmington, delaware the president s hometown, each year just from overdoses of fentanyl. And for every life lost, our Community Feels the impact. What impact . Its the mothers brothers, fathers, children whove lost ad loved one and who try to pick up the pieces because we have a southern border that is so wide open that 48,000 pounds of fentanyl come right through it. Fentanyls destruction has impacted every single one of us personally. I would say that probably half the room knows someone who knowsri someone whose lives have been devastated and families have been destroyed because of fentanyl. But lets take a step back and look at how we got to this point over the last several years. Under this Current Administration america is facing the worst border crisis in our nations history and the president s disastrous policies have turned thee fentanyl epidemic into a national crisis. The cbp reports that fentanyl seizures have soared over 860 since 2019. Our Border Patrol and dea are working as hard as they can, seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry and across our country. But tragically, for every amount seized we know even more is trafficked on our streets. Thats why we must take a twoprong approach to addressing the fentanyl crisis. Number one we must tackle the physical front by securing our border. Thats why i introduced both the alan t. Shao ii fentanyl Public Health emergency and Overdose Prevention act as well as thee secure the border act of 2023. These bills would expedite the processing and removal of migrants illegally entering the country and properly fund and bolster security measures along our southern border. Number two we must attack the criminal financing of the fentanyl trade by enforcing our Money Laundering and sanctions laws. Thats where this bankingan Committee Comes in to play. My bill, the fend off fentanyl act, which is bipartisan, is critical to helping stop this illicit financing. Id once again like to thank the chairman and all of the colleagues on this committee, for working together in a bipartisan fashion for the health of this nation. Fend makes combating fentanyl a Top National Security priority for the United States, and oncee enacted, will maximize our ability to leverage sanctions and antiMoney Laundering tools against illicit mexican and chinese organizations that traffic deadly fentanyl. Follow the money is a triedandtrue investigativete strategy that must be employed more forcefully to combat fentanyl trafficking in the United States. Cartels and criminals thatou profit from our devastating losses must be stopped. D. And to do that, we have to hit them where it hurts and thats their wallets. The illicit money engine needs to be turned off and it needs to be turned off now. The fend off fentanyl act makeswh clear what we all know too well the fentanyl crisis facing america is a National Emergency and must be treated as a National Health emergency. Americans cannot afford for us to wait. I am grateful we have a panel here today that is willing tost share their perspectives, personal stories and support for our legislaon. I look forward to hearing from each witness on this critically important issue. Thank you. Thank you senator scott. Ill introduce todays witnesses. Again thanks to the greedy for joining us roll deford ford is a twotime grammy nominee and cmt music awards winner. He singsut an advocate for those facing drug addiction. He speaksnt directly with and for people struggling with addiction across the nation. Thank you for joining us and thank you for serving your nation. Mr. Patrick uses national present for fraternal order of police to his local Law Enforcement career saw pivotal Law Enforcement leadership roles in state local National Levels and thank you for serving communities in our nation. President yoes and mr. Critser ms. Coleman managing director, a special agent in charge of dba recognized expert on antimoneylaundering investigations. Thank you for your career. Long career serving the public. Start with mr. Fortenberry welcome. For your First Committee hearing, i assume. Forgiveve me, im a little nervous. Im used to having a rock n roll band behind the one have a microphone in front of me. During the time that i been giving to share my testimony here i think its important to note before i start that at least five minutes ill be speaking somebody in the United States a Drug Overdose and theres almost 70 a 70 chance that during those five minutes it will be fentanyl related. Having started that way chairman brown Ranking Member scott and his Team Committee members thank you for having me. I know this is a bit of a curveball but i like the myself. My name is jason dufour but to most i am known as a jelly roll. Its important to establish earlier that i am a musician that have no political clients. Im not a democrat and republican. In fact, because of my past my right to vote has been restricted to us for i have never paid attention to political race in my life. Ironically i think that makes me the perfect person to speak about this because that no transcends partisanship and ideology gentlemen and women. This is a totally different problem. And i was thinking outside to the media, and they gave them a statistic this at 190 people a day overdose and buy everything late in the United States of america. That is about 737 plane thats what about about the 737 aircraft can carry. Could you imagine the National Media attention it would get if there were reporting that a plane was crashing every single day and killing 190 people . But because its 190 drug di we drug addicts we dont feel that way. Because americas been known to bully and chain drug addicts instead of d to understand what the actual root of the problem is with that. But the sad news is that that narrative is changing because the statistics say in all likelihood almost every person in this room has lost a a friend, family member, or call eight to the disease known as addiction. I have attended more funerals than a care to share with yall. This committee i could sitays about the caskets ive carried of people i loved dearly deeply, good people. Not just uncles, friends, cousinsys normal people. Some people that just got in a car wreck and started taking a pain pill to manage it. One thing led to the other how fast it spirals out of control i dont think people truly truly understand. So many people. Equally i think its a book for me to tell you all that im not here to defend the use ofdrugs. And i also understand the paradox of my history as a drug dealer standing in front of this committee. But equally i think thats what makes the perfect to talk about this. I was a part of the problem. I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution. I brought my communitye down. I hurt people. I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs i knew apsley nothing about come just like these drug use for doing right now when youre mixing every drug on the mark with fentanyl and their killing the people wee love. Ill be honest with yall my desire only get older and do better and be better. I truly believe selling drugs was a victimless crime. I truly believe that, yall. My father always told me what doesnt get you in the wash will now i have a 15yearold daughter whose mother is a drug addict. Everyday i get a look in the eyes of a victim in my household of the effects of drugs every single day. And every single day i have to wonder me and my wife if today will be the day that have to tell my daughter that her mother became a part of the national statistic. History repeats itself, gentlemen. Even in the 1990s crack into my biddulph lowerclass neighborhood and at that moment even has a ten digit you couldve never convince me in that moment that the would be a far bigger problem on the horizong, and then i watched opioids and oxycontin burst onto the scene. Im here to tell you all that fentanyl is going to make the Sackler Family lookob like saints. And i want to let yall sit with that for a second. It isime for us to be proactive and not reactive. We were reacted when crack reacted with opioids and yall are taking and somebody in Senate Finally being proactive. I truly believe in my heart that this bill, that this bill will stop the supply and help stop the supply fentanyl but part of being proactive gentlemen and women and ladies i have to be frank and tell you allk to that side of capitol hill and stop the demand we are going to spin our tires in the mud. You all are taking the first dip but i encourage you to take it outside of that room. You take its and your constituents, and you give them the most that you can. I know ive got a few seconds to. Senator brown said i maytoth or may not go over. All i want to say is that i not only could you all to do this. I encourage to take it a step further. At every concert i perform i witnessed heartbreaking impact the fentanyl. I see fans grappling with this tragedy in the form of music that they seek solace in music and hope that their experiences will not befall others. They crave reassurance. These of the people a dispute for, yall. These people crave reassurance that their elected officials actually care more about human life than they do about ideology and partisanship. I stand here as regular memberr of society. I am a stupid songwriter, yall but i i firsthand witnesses and weight most people have not. I encourage you all to not only pass this bill but encourage you to bring it where it matters at the kitchen table. Thank you for your time. Thank you mr. Deford. President yoes, welcome. Thank you. Good morning chairman brown Ranking Member scott decembers members of me. What you think that the opportunity to appear b today to provide Law Enforcement perspective on how we can step up our efforts into the fentanyl epidemic that is killing americans at an alarming rate. In 2021 more than 100,000 americans died from Drug Overdoses. 65 ofn which is been attributed to fentanyl. According to the National Institute of drug abuse overdose death rates exploded between 20152021 by nearly 750 . Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs were found to be the main driver in Drug Overdoses. The u. S. Drug overdose death toll in 2022 is estimated to be, was estimated to be at 110,000 primarily from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, making them the leading cause of death of americans 1849. Drug cartels use precursor chemicals sourced by china to manufacture pills that are inintentionally made to look like Prescription Medications like oxycontin, percocet and xanax. The Drug Enforcement administration estimates that of these fake bills 4060 of them are often bought on social media and are laced with a deadly dose of fentanyl. Taking just one of these can be lethal. Overdose deaths continue to rise despite joint efforts by dea and the Us Department of Homeland Security both of which a part of a state of the Law Enforcement agencies to prevent fentanyl andco similar opioids from getting into our communities. They dea estimates that it sees more than 379,000 potentially deadly doses of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs yet the death though continues to rise. As Law Enforcement officers my members are on the phone line at the know firsthand just a academic is in our communities. We are typically the First Respond to a 9 11 call about a potential overdose. Our role goes beyond just interdiction and enforcement. We help preserve the sanctity of life. Many but not enough officers have access to nor can a lifes can reverse the opioid overdose if given in time. Law enforcement officers and other emergency medical responders likely save hundreds if not thousands of lives across this country every single day. Sadly, Law Enforcement officers experience every facet of this vastating trumpet we work to stem the flow fentanyl into our committees come to capture and punish those who deal the drugs come to save the lives of those and when Tragedy Strikes we deliver the news to families of their loved one that was killed by this poison. We recognize the nature of the threat that our country isust do more if are going to end our mitigate the doesnt impact the fentanyl come fentanylna citizens. We need to fully comprehensive National Strategy to reduce overdose to reduce overdose can disrupt traffic operations, attack traffickers and cartels with sanctions and prioritize antiMoney Laundering efforts related to the illicit opioid trade. Fraternal order of police was bad to work with Ranking Member scott and chairman brown to develop senate bill 1271, and could not be, could not emphasize enough the need to get this legislation moved. It has a bipartisan support and so it should on both sides of the house. And it should be passed by this, by the senate as quickly as possible. The fend off fentanyl act will direct resources to target the fennel supply chain from the chemical suppliers in china to the cartels in mexico smuggled into the United States by requiring the president to impose impose and enforce sanctions on criminal actors and organizations, increasing the likelihood that those who defy the law would be caught and prosecuted. The president to impose and enforce sanctions on criminal actors and organizations, increasing the likelihood that those who defy the law will be caught and prosecuted. We also support the use of lawfully forfeited assets of these traffickers to further Law Enforcement efforts to combat these criminals. The bill authorizes the Treasury Department to Money Laundering operations related to the trafficking of fentanyl and similar opioids. This would reduce the profitability of drug trade and bring those profiting from the deaths of american citizens to we can and must reduce life lost and edition of the drug supply chain relentless drug suppliers. We need all of these tools in our tool boscs to handle this. He change briefly or to thank leadership which would create a whole Program Based on the United States department of the home loan program. It is important to recruit challenges for Law Enforcement is facing an ugly remiss if i didnt take the opportunity to hear that. S to address the recruiting challenges that Law Enforcement is facing and i would be remiss if i didnt take the opportunity to mention that here. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today ensure the perspective of 373,000 members of the fraternal order of police on this issue and im more than happy to answer any questions e going to continue to work to pass the act until it happens, mr. Urben, welcome and thank you for joining us. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on additional member measures to combat the massive threat of fentanyl and other narcotics trafficking. This drug poses an enormous threat to the homeland, it has murdered hundreds of thousands of americans, destabilized mexico, destroyed communities and harmed the integrity of our Financial Institutions. Significant tools including the fend off fentanyl act are needed to address it. I witnessed the damage done by organized crime and Drug Trafficking firsthand during my 24 year career with the dea, we targeted leadership of Transnational Criminal Organizations that were trafficking drugs in the u. S. And laundering crime proceeds through u. S. Nancial institutions. In 2018, i was assigned to the dea special operations division. I formed a team that was focused on a new and evolving threat, chinese Money Laundering organizations, we took this step because we were receiving reports from the field that mexican drug cartels are using chamounts to launder their cash. Agents in the field reported that chinese money launderers guaranteed immediate payment to the traffickers in their home countries at a cost of only 1 to 2 , that was previously unheard of. This new model was a dramatic improvement for the Mexican Cartels. Because they achieved greater profits, more quickly with less risk than more traditional forms of moneylaundering supeso exchange. Here is how the scheme works. Every day in the United States, the proceeds from the sales of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are generated in the form of bulk cash. Those proceeds are delivered to a chinese moneylaundering broker in the u. S. So they can be laundered. Once that is received by that money broker, the funds are advanced to the Mexican Cartels in mexico, they are made whole at that point. Chinese moneylaundering organization then sells those u. S. Dollars to chinese customers who want to spend money in the United States. This money can be used to fund investment, to buy real estate, cars, paying College Tuition and purchasing chips at a casino. These chinese customers pay a broker in china for the cash they purchased within the United States. Funds received by brokers from customers in china are used to buy goods for experts in mexico or another country where they operate. Once those goods arrive in mexico, or another company used by transnational crime, they are sold in the proceeds are delivered to another chinese moneylaundering broker, in this example, in mexico and it returns the money to the funds they already advanced to the Mexican Cartel. The chinese money launderers accomplish all this quickly and efficiently. I refer the committee to my written submission which contains a simple five graphic depicting this scheme. What makes this scheme so effective and hard to detect . First, it minimizes the movement of funds, dollars dont leave the u. S. , pesos dont leave mexico. Second, it takes advantage of the huge increasing volume of trade with china. Third, it uses technology to its advantage. Transacting primarily via wechat that is encrypted and facilitates speed and trust within the chinese Money Laundering network. Fourth, it exploits the fact that Financial Institutions and other domestic recipients of chinese firms are unfamiliar with chinese moneylaundering networks. Th, the scheme has several potential vulnerabilities that are not fully exploited but could be with the aid of the fend act and other changes. Proceeds never leave the u. S. And can be frozen or seized. Financial institutions, transactional, organizations and chinese moneylaundering organizations maintain detailed transaction data that can be exploited by Law Enforcement with the aid of targeting analysts andata scientist. And my current employer, im helping the Business Community understand and combat the threat posed by the cartels and enablers but more federal guidance, more sanctions, more enforcement activity and more resources are needed. The fend act addresses each of these needs. Thank you for your time and consideration, i look forward to answering your questions and any future discussions with the committee about this important issue. Your music, you have managed to make people feel heard by es americans face. You used the term, your man of service, i have heard you say that publicly and privately, i appreciate that, it is a part of your recovery, you need to have a group of people speaking for them that look like them. We have experts who speak to numbers and staff but to your point of view, describe the everyday struggle of addiction. Its nothing less than devastating. It is truly the biggest crisis i have seen in america. Im almost 40 years old, senator brown and senator scott, i have lived long enough to see almost every form of drug that has come across since the 80s. And i grew up in a household that had multiple addicts and alcoholics in that household. I have seen drugs from an age and i can tell you that every alcoholic and of every drug i have seen, nothing holds a candle to what is happening with fentanyl in the United States. Im seeing people shattered, families are broken. It is important to note that the real victim, there is a quote that says, the addict isnt the only person in the family that suffers from the symptoms of addiction, the entire family suffers. The entire family rallies around the addict and carries that. The addict is not the spreads far. Thank you, most of us cannot sing that well but what we can do is legislate. What kind of signal is sent to the people you talk to who struggle to feel heard if we come together in both houses as we have in the senate. If we can do that in the house, what kind of signal will be sent to the people whom you are fighting for . It is immeasurable because from the house side looking in, we dont see nothing happing in d. C. Except fights. All we see is war and division. And it makes us feel unheard and unseen and it makes us feel like our problems will always be caught in the middle of some kind of partisan issue. And you coming together, this committee has taken the first step that i think can be the beginning of the change that just d. C. This isnt the only bipartisan bill that needs to be spoken about, but there are many mountains behind that that must be spoken about, too. And i applaud the first step. And me being here, and for many people, we feel heard. They feel like they have a voice in washington, d. C. Today and i carry that with pride as i stand here with you alyou, president yoes , tell us about how this crisis affects your office, both physical threat and the psychological burden of dealing with overdoses and the devastation caused to families and communities by senator, it really is two parts, one of them i will talk briefly, the potential of exposure to our members, just in normal enforcement coming into contact with it. But, the one that i guess we underestimate, Law Enforcement officers are human, we struggle with a lot of things as well and trying to fix the problem, trying to assist those that are overdosing and then having to deal with the families after to carry this tragedy back to them, we are human and it takes a toll on us as well and it is happening over and over and over. And that repetitive effort, repetitive action to our members, it takes its toll in the Mental Wellbeing of our officers as well. It is time to get a handle on this. Every single day, is it 1000 people, because thats what it was last year. We need the tools to address it on multiple levels, not just in the enforcement side but also the families and those that are affected by it as well. This has to be a multifaceted approach, every wheel needs to be working and we need to take away the profit of those that are profiting from the slaughter of americans and we need to take it away, as long as it is profitable, they are going to continue to do it. Thank you. When i talked, i heard that all the time, from officers from ashtabula, cincinnati, other Police Officers from toledo to athens, thank you for saying that. Mr. Urben , you described the following of the money, we have both talked about this, from china and mexico, how the money makes its way into all three societies. How does fentanyl , how does it attack that, how does this bill help us follow the money . So, it offensive operations against the Money Laundering networks, certainly in my career, following the money is what led me to success against transnational organized crime around the globe, whether it be russia, hezbollah, Mexican Cartels, what have you. But, the common theme i have heard is unite as a country, suggest is imposing justice on our adversaries, it is always said is fighting satisfying bringing them to justice. And in terms of the send act themselves, sanctions can impose costs on the Mexican Cartels, aggressive sanctioning, a platform set up, sanctions usually take 6 to nine months, but with the funding and the focus that i see behind it, we want to go something more like 4 to 6 weeks. We want to act with speed against our adversaries, whether it be the Mexican Cartels, the chinese precursors or the Chemical Companies. The allow Law Enforcement to connect the dots and i can get into data targeting later but, the additional oversight that offend act wants to have in institutions will allow Law Enforcement to target these networks better. Thank you senator scott. Thank you, you mentd and the role that it plays in moving the money around. Can you expand upon that a i want to talk about it in the example that i gave and it allows for speed and trust within the network. So, never in my career with the dea has a criminal organization had the benefit of an encrypted Global Network that they can communicate on. And what i mean by trust is, u. S. Law enforcement does not have the ability to intercept wechat , we cannot wiretap it. So compare that to 10 or 15 years ago, when i ran the team to attack the black Market Peso Exchange, you could wiretap the network. You cant do that with wechat. The speed i talked about and the example i gave earlier , these transactions or communications happen within a day. It used to take 7 to 10 days, but wechat allows for that speed because it is trusted within the moneylaundering network to communicate, they can rely on the person they are speaking wia person they can rely on to complete that transaction , again, the black Market Peso Exchange and forced the movement of money that would flow from violence. You dont have violence, the chinese moneylaundering have terms. Whether it is additional legislation or a negotiated strategy within our executive branch of the government, we need to be able to impact wechat so its not a benefit to the chinese moneylaundering. Thank you very much, that is such an important part of the conversation, how money can move around with total privacy and a very rock solid system that eludes or evades capturing Law Enforcement in our country and i would love to have a deeper dive into solutions for that as we have an opportunity to talk later on as well. Thank you very much. Jelly roll, quick question for you, as you know, your family in charleston, they are very Close Friends of mine. Tell me about jelly roll, one thing they said that is authentic, he is sincere and he the issues that impacted his life. Up in poverty, i will say that sometimes the unseen and unheard feel invisible. And you are making visible those who still today feel like because of who they are, where they live or what they do, they are somehow invisible. The challenge of course with drug addiction is it doesnt know a class or race or place. It is everywhere. Can you talk about the fact that indeed, what we are talking about today impacts acour society and in a devastatingly. Thank you, i was hoping to share this, so you bringing it up means a lot. I had the opportunity to go to dozens of rehab facilities jails and prisons, every time we do a show in the city, we go to the local rehab to sing songs and encourage people. And at rehabs across america, i can tell you with certainty, i have seen everything from governors children in the same rehab, as kids that have been homeless since they were when i tell you that this drug, it has finally reached to look at addicts and shame them but now it is hard to because the rest of the world is realizing that the attic is actually their nephew, their cousin, and they know their cousin was a good person. This is in the actions of the cousin they know. Senator scott, chairman brthis touches every single human, white, black, every ethnicity, every race, everywhere in the United States, it is touching and hurting people and killing people and that is why doing is so important, it is bringing people together, it is making the unseen felt seen, and we cant thank you enough for it. Thank god that congress can come together, not in a bipa but in a nonpartisan way to address the issues and the challenges facing americans all over this country, and i certainly hope that my friends in the house are paying attention today being a law is a travesty. And i hope my colleagues will take up this sendoff fentanyl and get it done. Thank you mr. Chairman. I think in order to combat the crisis, it is important to understand ids are getting into the country. Mr. Urben, is it accurate to say that the vast majority of fentanyl trafficking comes into the country to official ports of entry . Most of the fentanyl comes through official ports, it usually comes across the mexican border. But through official ports of entry . A majority of it probably does, yes, sir. In 2021, over 90 of fentanyl seizures occurred at legal crossing points. Just 279 out of 1. 8 million arrests by Border Patrol of illegal border crossings resulted in fentanyl seizure. So it seems to me, in the first place, if we are serious about one of the elements of this challenge, is stopping fentanyl from coming into the United States , we would significantly increase resources to combat the flow of fentanyl across the border. We would think about dramatically enhancing our Technology Capability at those official points of entry where the vast majority, the 1. 8 million arrests were taking place. And that would help us dramatically stem the flow. In order to make Real Progress in the fight against fentanyl , we must hold foreign governments such as china and mexico accountable to their commitments to crackdown on producers and traffickers of synthetic opioids. In november at the apec summit, china released yqthe bilateral corruption, but we need more than words at this point, from your experience, what has china done to crackdown on Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies that manufacture fentanyl and fentanyl precursors . There has been limited action within china from my perspective since i left government in terms of doing that, during my time in government, i did not have terms of what they were actually doing. We had certainly an office within the embassy for dea and had limited cooperation with chinese Law Enforcement, we are trying to build that relationship. How about mexico, what have they done to crackdown on the drug cartels that makes fentanyl with other drugs and smuggle them into the United States . So, i think in a very difficult situation concerning the cartels power and reach and ability to corrupt Mexican Government components, they have done to some degree what they can under the circumstances but it has been very limited in terms of their ability to counter or negate the ability of the Mexican Cartels to traffic fentanyl. These are two of our big challenges, the answer is not enough, i appreciate that President Biden raised the issue with president xi at the summit. And while last year i introduced a strengthening fentanyl act to extend those parties, we have to deal with issues domestically and put pressure on them and certainly the send off fentanyl act is a very strong start, but i think theres other things we can do as well. Lastly, i would like to echo the chairmans support for the fendoff fentanyl act , it builds on existing laws to better combat the flow of illicit opioids into the United States, i would like to highlight a provision that i got into the bill that requires that the department of treasury to report on actions taken by the peoples republic of china with respect to persons involved in the supply chain for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors. We cant not solve the fentanyl crisis within our borders alone, we have to address the International Components of the supply chain as well. And do you believe those provisions of the bill of the fendoff fentanyl act that reaches beyond the borders are important as well . I think they are critical, i fully support your statement that we have to essentially attend these networks outside the country to help protect the country, the sanctions component that you spoke about is something that needs to more ostensibly and greater in scale, i mean dramatically greater in scale with speed. Again, versus 6 to 9 months, you want to dramatically increase the scale and the and sanctions tool against these networks, whether it is chinese precursor chemical facilitators, the company themselves or anybody thats helping to facilitate this, with a variety of components. Thank you. Mr. Deford, where did you grow up . I lived in depriest lake, are you familiar . Yes, class of 78. I think they call it Country Meadows now. I lived right next to apollo apartments, im very familiar with that part. I also had friends that got convicted for Drug Trafficking and had one commit suicide after Substance Abuse really took his life. One thing i have noticed, one thing you said that i think is very important, you said you see a lot of fights appear, but this is one that i hope i can get you updated on. Are selfmedicating. They have trauma problems and they have a lot of challenges. We passed the last year, on a bipartisan basis, some of the folks voted for it. It is working very well. And it has helped to expand Behavioral Health access. We need to help educate states like tennessee. I live now in north carolina. We continue these fights. There is some good stuff that came out of his chamber on a bipartisan basis that will save lives. We will not spend time educating you on this, but i would love to have the opportunity to educate you on this so that we make sure it gets implement it well in tennessee. I am doing my part in north carolina. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. I believe that Mental Health and drug addiction go handin hand. We have this bill, in a pilot form. And about seven years ago, we had a 50 reduction in Mental Health incarcerations, 50 reduction, estate wise, that says a lot about folks getting into care. That really makes a difference. I look forward to meeting with you. Also i think that talking about the border, there is a fight going on right now on Border Security. This is why you should be concerned. Cartels are charging people fares to get across, they are making, according to the bea, someone somewhere on the order of a billion dollars on the border. They are making ultralights, they are landing, coming across the border, lending, dropping off drugs. Senator menendez is right, the majority are coming through legal ports of industry. Part of it can be fixed by technology, and part of it can be controlled with legal ports of we have to realize that we have to fix this and we have to have to hold china and mexico more accountable. Mr. Urban, the, the, we have to continue to pound the drum that china is poisoning over 100,000 people per year. As mr. Jason deford said, the majority are dying from fentanyl. What more can we do to disrupt the Money Laundering . The cartels, the Mexican Cartels do not launder money the way they used to. Now they call one 800 china and they have a Global Network where they are laundering the money before our very eyes. What sorts of policies can we take up to make that more difficult and more disruptive . We need to understand that we have Home Field Advantage when it comes to Money Laundering. Specifically, talking within the domestic United States. The proceeds that i spoke about, they are right here, in specific points in time and they always start right here within the United States. We need to attack their networks , the money, the proceeds, we do not focus on enough, at is where the Mexican Cartels and the Money Laundering is vulnerable, okay . In terms of attacking those networks, we need additional compliance and oversight. My time is limited, i want to submit a question to the record for you, because this is also a Public Safety issue of Law Enforcement. We are not going to have time. What isnt also going to require, i am not necessarily big onolns, but if we do not start ignoring out the use of crypto and Digital Assets as a way of really masking the activities, do you agree with that . I certainly agree that crypto needs additional compliance. It is one cycle of the Money Laundering that i spoke about. Mr. Urban, i wanted to thank you. And mr. Jason deford, it looks like we lived in the same trailer park. We have a common help educating people. Not one and done, excuse me. You pass a bill and you hope something happened. I want to make sure what happened in the states that have implemented, excuse me, implemented the savers Community Act happen in tennessee and across the country. Yes sir, you have a friend in need. I would like to talk. Mr. Jason deford, it is not obvious , but he graduated a few years before you. It is also maybe not obvious, he is the only one in the room as southern as im. Member scott, i heard from senator kennedy, that is coming. I want to first of all thank the chairman and Ranking Members for their leadership, not only for having this meeting, but also the bill, the fentanyl act. It is long past time that this bill get past. I think that it was said right, the shenanigans in the honeed to get some stuff done. I had a bill on china buying farmlandand they stopped that. It was the wrong thing to do. Probably for political reasons, they did it, but why they would stop this makes no sense to me. We need to categorize fentanyl as the National Emergency that it is. We do need to hold china accountable for their role in the crisis. We need to give Law Enforcement agents order agents, the tools that they need to be successful. I want to thank each and every one of our witnesses for being here and for your testimony. I think it is really important. I want to follow up a little bit on what the senator was talking about, on the cash. The fentanyl, the fend off fentanyl , and the house screwed up, which is what they do most of the time anyway. The cash issue, the Money Laundering issue, that is certainly not what we have talked about. You started to answer the question and i want you to finish off the answer. What do we need to do, on the Money Laundering aspects . Thank you, sir. I was compliance additionals tracking o activities, and in addition to that, there is a tremendous opportunity with data. You can pull the data that i am talking about, it goes out, they do 10 arrests. If you pull all of that data in, from search warrants, judicial process, laptops, phones, you can normalize that data and you can take out targeting packages immediately to the field, right . We are missing that opportunity with speed, we need to impact these organizations with speed, in terms of funding and approach, there is an opportunity to go after the chinese Money Laundering, the encrypted act that we talked about, we have to be able to surveil and intercept that. Lets go back you are saying that a fair portion of the Money Laundering is going through our Banking System, our regulated Banking System . That is correct, when they sell the dollars back to a chines invest or spend money in the states, the day before, those are the proceeds of the trafficking that we are talking about. It is going through the system. Okay, thank you. I want to thank you for your support of not only the f. E. N. D. Off fentanyl but the anti we talked about the impact that it has on your fellow Police Officers handling this poison. And i have two questions. Number one on the streets, from that standpoint, talk to me about how the f. E. N. D. Off fentanyl will make a difference. Senator, the age old problem that we have, and criminal enterprises they are operating at a pace that is much further than we can make and fix problems, i think that this act is so very important, because it gives us extra tools to combat this. The reality is, this is going to be the first step. This is an illusion. In order for us to have any meaningful impact, we need to do two things. It was spoken about earlier. We have to operate at a faster pace. There is no reason that anyone here in washington should be against finding ways to save and protect americans from this crisis. It needs to move at a much faster pace, if we are going to keep up with those people who we are trying to combat. The other side of it is, it is frustrating, you know, number one, being overloaded, trying to deal with the crisis and manage it with the manpower that exists , along with all of the other challenges associated with the data it. It will always outpace what our resources are and it is something that we need to put some attention to. This bill can go in the direction in order to be able to take. As long as we have something profitable to do this, we are always going to be behind, you know, behind. We have to be able to break it up. I think when it comes down to really following the money, regardless it is illusion. It ways be new challenges. We need to be ahead of it and this bill puts us in the right direction. Mr. Jason deford, i am out of time. I want to say thank you very to impact lives for the better in this country is something we need to take notice of. I dont know if you have ever been to montana, anytime, anyplace, you are welcome to come up. I think your message needs to be held heard all over the country, including rule america. I would love to see you there. It is a pretty state. Oh man, it is heaven. Senator kennedy of louisiana is recognized. Candidly, gentlemen. There is not much that congress can do to make the country stop producing precursor chemicals, i have met with him personally in beijing and i do not think that it did much good. Candidly, there is not much that the United States congress can do to make president Lopez Obrador in mexico stop the cartels. He knows what is going on. There are two things that we can do and first we meet in congress. We can secure the border. It is an wound, it is wide open. And it is wide open by design. I have seen it. Most of the members of this committee have. But that is not what i want to talk about. The other thing that congress can do is crackdown on the dealers. Not the addicts mr. Jason deford, but the dealers. Now, mr. Urban, do you see this pencil . Yes, sir. The tip of this pencil, the amount of fentanyl, just in the pencil tip, represented by a pencil tip will kill you, dead. Dead as Fried Chicken mr. Jason deford. That is southern. You see this . 40 grams . Yes, sir. This will kill every man, woman, and child in culpeper, virginia. If you have this much fentanyl, you are a dealer. This is 400 grams. This will kill every man, woman, and child in knoxville, tennessee. Now, you are a dealer. You are not holding this much fentanyl if you are not dealing. Now, 40 grams. This will get you, if you get caught, a minimum of five years. Okay . 400 grams, you get caught with this much, enough to kill every man, woman, and child in knoxville, and many more, before you step on it. This will get you 10 years, minimum. There is just one problem. We punish other drugs less severelythan we do the most powerful drug, fentanyl. I mean, just look at it. 40 grams, five years. 400 grams for fentanyl. 10 years. Methamphetamine . Five grams will get you five years. 50 grams will get you 10 years. Much less severely than fentanyl. We do the same thing for pcp. We do the thing same thing for crack cocaine. What you allow, gentlemen, is what will continue. I support the fentanyl ratification act. The one we talked about today. But i also support Something Else. I support another bill the fairness in fentanyl sentencing act. And it would, it would lower the fiveyear mathreshold from 40grams of fentanyl to two grams. And it would lower the 10year mandatory minimum from 400 grams to 20 grams. And we ought to pass it, too. What you allow is what will continue. And i am going to yield back. Chairman brown, my 14 seconds. To to make up for my past transgressions. It doesnt, but that is fine senator warren. Need to tell you, my friends in louisiana make it very ul issue. I agree with them. And i was a little concerned that you cited folks of people dying in tennessee and virginia, but you may know analogy to the louisiana communities. We see this on the intel side. They have great quality control, and a few grams misplaced can make the difference between a drug experience and a death. This is the direction i am going to go today. I see, as chairman of the intelligence committee, how often and i do not st bias against crypto. But boy oh boy, the amount of times that crypto is used as a way to have these illicit payments made is something that we have got to grapple with. I think my friend from louisiana. I am going to start on maybe slightly a little bit lighter note. I want to acknowledge mr. Jason deford and personally thank him, i know you were in bristol, virginia recently, for a concert and that, next door to abington and you saw the Softball Team cheered them on. I am grateful for that. I know recently, you were closer to richmond and you visited a prison in chesterfield. I would love if you could share briefly some of the experiences f that prison in chesterfield. The Heart Program is what it is called. The sheriff down there has his hand on what he is doing. He is focused on rehabbing drug addicts in jail. Il in the United States of america that will allow you to come in without a crime if you are just a drug addict who wants to get off the streets and no rehab will take you, you can come in and join the Heart Program to get sober. I think that is incredible. I do that as often as i can at rehabs all across america, but the saddest part, you just see the same thing, heartbreak and despair. It was just incredible. That guy in chesterfield, that sheriff really has his hand on the pulse of what is thank you for sharing the story. Respectfully, not for a pat on the back, we donated the proceeds for the show that night, we cut the Heart Program in chesterfield i think a 30,000 check. And also thank you for visiting the Softball Team. I would pay to go to the championship, i will always be cheering for them. A serious note, because it is all serious now. I am sure, many in the igence committee, one of the most important tools that we have in the intelligence community, it is section i was recently in and 702 is being used, not just daily, but was hourly. In our efforts, and helping our israeli friends ferret out some of that hamas leadership. But 702 has also been criticallyor in exposing the rolethat the mexican drug cartels play. Frankly, in exposing the activethe chinese government. I know that my clock is ticking here. Everybody involved against you dont, the drugs, realizes 702 is a cricoenand i have put forward a broad, bipartisan reform bill that protects the privacy of americans and eliminates the ability to use any of this information to prove any kind of criminal charge. D it changes, remember, 702 is one foreigner talking to another foreigner abroad. My clock is ticking down, but, gentlemen, mr. Urban, if we were to lose that 702 capacity, what would that do in terms of our ability to give you the kind of enforcement tools that you need against the bad the short answer is, it takes a very important tool out of our toolbox in order to combat this crisis. I second that we are at a cartels, this would put us at a greater disadvantage. That tool. We are open for reform, but the idea that you have to have it search wanted before you act on any of this information. Wrinkly, the vast majority of inadvertentin the form of victim notification. Victims of Cyber Attacks from foreign entities. Those of our colleagues, that, that see otherwise, i hope they will give me a chance to make case of how important this critical tool is, not only in terms of the president s daily beat, and conflict around the Law Enforcement the tools they need to go against the bad guys. And, mr. Deford, thank you again. Senator haggerty. Welcome to all of you i would like to start with you, mr. Deford. First of all, i would like to congratulate you on being named the cma new artist of the year, that is quite an award. Welcome to you. Stay on our state for a minute. Our state is facing a grave threat from Drug Overdoses. We have the number two mortality rate in the nation, in tennessee. According to the Tennessee Department of health, the majority of these overdoses are linked to illicit fentanyl. Every time i talk to tennessee sheriffs, they tell me that each month is worse month before it, in terms of Drug Overdoses and Drug Trafficking. And if i can get to what is causing this, the fentanyl is being made from chinese precursors, coming into mexico where it is manufactured there, and it is besmuggled across the southern border. In 2023, customs and border protections seized 26,000 pounds of southern border that is the only amount that we are catching. Senator menendez talked about the amount that we are catching at the pots of en where we have sophisticated equipment to screen. What is evident, with the rising death toll that we have, more and more is flooding across the border, beyond the points of entry. We need to use our resources across the border. I would like to come back to you, mr. Deford, and to your experiences. Herein d. C. , i think there is a disconnect between what is in washington and what the american citizens are actually experiencing across the country. I think your unique experience can help bridge the divide. I was very touched by your opening remarks. In particular, your comments about addressing the demand for fentanyl, as well as supply. We are here talking about a bill that addresses the supply, but i would love to get your perspective on how we would address the demand. I know that you have thought a great deal about this. First of all, senator hagerty, it is incredible to meet you. Being a tennessean, i am very respectful of all that you have done for the stated not only do we have the second biggest mortality rate in national, it was the second most dangerous metropolis after baltimore. I had a meeting with our mayor recently. Just to the actual demand of it, i dont think there are enough resources for people to learn about it and there is not enough affordable Rehabilitation Centers in the state of tennessee. I think we are scheduled to hang out with each hesoon and i would love to discuss that with you. But, i live in a very bad juxtaposition, the drug dealer and the attic, because i have played the position of both. Unrelated to senator kennedys point, i believe that it is about as as backwards as it can be, excuse and i see this bill as truly stopping the supply. But, we do have a whole problem, senator hagerty. I look forward to continuing our discussion when we meet later today. Thank you, i am excited. Next, i would like to talk about how we deal with violations. On december 16, 2022, attorney general garland released a new doj policy that restricts mandatory sentences, discouraging prosecutors from charging the most seriously readily approvable offense. The policy states, quote, it applies, with particular force in drug cases, which includes fentanyl traffickers. So, my question, to you, mr. , what happens when they either refuse to prosecute or they refuse to prosecute for softer the majority of Violent Crime in every created by a very small percentage of people. That is certainly what the sheriff and the chief of police of memphis told me, too and they know exactly who they are. When we are able to apply pressure and take people up the street who prey on the people within our community, we have an impact on the quality of life in the community and when we are unable to do so, we see the problems that we see these problems in cities across the country. It is a challenge for Law Enforcement to put our efforts into trying to make our communities safe, only to see a revolving door in the drug system, at some point, we need to recognize that what we are doing is not working, apply enough pressure, it eliminates some of this activity and the quality of life goes up. Does the fa enforce drug crime laws tend to increase or decrease . It is connected every quality of life area in the community, to somehow recognize the damage that is beindone by the drug trade, within our area, and view it as a nonViolent Crime, that is not accurate. It is clearly leading to more debts on our streets. Senator warren of massachusetts is recognize. Thank you for holding this hearing. Fentanyl killed more than 78,000 Americans Last year including more than 2300 people in massachusetts. And crypto helps fund that death toll. Crypto plays a role at every stage in the illicit fentanyl trade. Chinese Companies Sell the chemical ingredients used to make fentanyl to drug cartels and they get paid and crypto. The drug cartels and the traffickers sell their drugs in the darkest marketplaces, and they are paid in crypto, to the tune of about 1. 5 billion in 2022. And drug kingpins by weapons and cars and they make payoffs, again, using crypto. Now, the trump administrations dea spotted this problem five years ago, and in their 2018 brett a freshman threat assessment, they said cartels offer a relatively secure method for moving proceeds around the world with much less risk, compared to traditional methods. And since then, the problem has only gotten worse. Take one case, last year, the department of justice indicted a cartel member, who laundered more than 900,000 in crypto by directing their u. S. Drugbased careers to deposit cash straight into the cartels crypto accounts. And what do they then turn around and use that crypto for . Sted in the fentanyl factory, so they could put more fentanyl into the United States. Now, mr. Yoes, thank you for your work and for the work of hundreds of thousands of Police Officers in the front lines of the Opioid Crisis. You have seen the vas tricks that drug traffickers use , to move their drug money around. So, if i can let me ask you, why do you think ca find crypto such an attractive optionyou, thank you you for the comments. I do not betray myself as an expert. But what we see is illusion. Crypto today, Something Else later. It is the next thing, in Law Enforcement, we follow the money. It just makes it harder to follow the money. I think, the fact that it is, you know, emerging, there are a to be figured out about this. And i think that is what the al to it is, we are a little behind in truly understanding how to use it in a way that helps us combat. All right, mr. Urban, you have decades of experience at dea, following illicit fentanyl funds. Why do you think that crypto has become so attractive . It allows for speed. So, you can move it fast, unlike cash, which you have to physically carry. Larger, much more difficult to conceal, so there is speed and, to some degree, anonymity. They can transfer and move that asset anonymously, they are exploiting the lack of compliance and oversight, within the crypto industry. Just a lot it is easier to hide, yeah, rrect. Make no mistake drug traffickers are still moving cash the oldfashioned way, but crypto has changed the game by allowing criminals to move boatloads of money instantaneously and nearly anonymously. You kn to try to stop 900,000 in cold, hard cash into a suitcase and worry about whether some customs agent will spot it. Cartel members can now move as much money as they want, using a handful of crypto wallets, our antilaundering money lust have given cartels a backdoor to move the dirty fentanyl money that backdoor is wide open and it is helping fuel the Opioid Crisis at home. Mr. Yoes, it cartels, drug alers, and chinese Chemical Companies can keep exploiting the holes in our antiMoney Laundering roles and keep they will and they do and they will continue until we find ways to close the. It is about closing the door and thats why 40 senators incl working to pass a digital Money Laundering act that closes these loopholes and Money Laundering rule. Crypto a free pass and i look forward to working with all of my colleagues to finally fix that. Tonight ask for ten seconds . One of my Staff Members and colleagues from the private sector. Shes de an extraordinary job in louisiana. Shes here today and i wanted to recognize her and thank her for her service. [applause] thank. Thank you for your service and thank you to the Ranking Member for this important hearing and for theant to focus on this question question we talk about fentanyl trafficking in particular, i worry a lot we are always in this body a few years behind was going on in our country. My personal experience with opioid addiction in my family ten years ago what everyone was talking painkillers. Ten yearshi ago painkillers were getting away with street heroin. 10 years ago, what everyone was talking about was prescription painkillers. Of course, 10 years ago, prescription painkillers were giving way to street heroin. Five years ago everyone was talking about street heroin, but heroin was giving way to i would like us to make it ahead of the next thing in particular i about and i am, its commonly called on the street. I want tort focus my question toward you because as i understand it magazines actually more potent than fentanyl. I gave a talk to days have been able to order the stuff on the internet comes directly to the door and you with a street drug that is substantially more powerful than what we give pregnant women in hospital are about to deliver baby. Da ordinarily potent stuff for people can just order via mail. I want to start out just there mr. Urben, understand your and my right to assume that when the ccp started cracking down on fentanyl under pressure from the Top Administration 2018, 29, we actually saw pretty significant reduction in fentanyl coming into the country from the ccp. Is that correct . Come andad drink from Mainland China via parcel there was it significant reduction yesy question. Maybe give me a sense of what youre saying when he comes to zines. Have we seen an increase, larger number of People Killed by this stuff . Whats going on . And more right to wor that night as he charted what fentanyl was five years go . I think youre right to worry. I think your thought process in terms of trying to get ahead of this and create speed to identify the network and what the disturbing on the street whether it be controlling it, whatever dea suggests in terms of what this thing on the street whether be the streets of kensington with one of these. The cartel with the chinese chemical suppliers of the, ts Mexican Cartels themselves always look to exploit more deadly more addictive substances within a country. I think the plan you want to put in place and what youre suggesting is the ability to think ahead to plan ahead to im going to question and recognizing your role with the da and youre not a state department official, let me know im going to ask anyway. When you think about likely people might deal drugs in the obvious answer is greed. You want toak why you might sell fit norue anything else. Do you worry theres a kind of National Security or National Competitive element to this . China economy to think they are aware of whats going on . Are we witnessing Something Like a reverse opium war where they are intentionalommit or country because its killing hundred 100,000 people here. Its. Its significantly impairing a lot more than that . So injured whenea and a focus on the chinese that i didnt have inside with the Mainland China withr, the ccp with what youre saying. However, i do think they can dramatically increase their efforts to negate the precursors of chemicals and if he would talk about with chinese Money Laundering its happening old happen in should happen and it is not. At the risk of going pretty far out that china is a largely statecontrolled economy it is notwi exactly easy to manufacture zines but i wonder if or looking like a state sponsor of terrorism explicitly permitting a weapon of mass destructi Chemical Warfare effectively to enter our country. Of course that assumes a lot some of whichok i think we should be more carefulst about but i really think we should be much china knows that it is destabilizing our country itsio killing our people its of course do tremendous damage tosu our workforce. And we ought to be looking into this and really exerting wouldve diplomatic pressure we can on the communist chinese to stop theun stuff i i appreciate your time come all of you. I appreciate you answering my questions. I get. Senator reed of rhode island is recognized. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. I want to begin by commending chairman brown and Ranking Member scott for drafting and bringing to the floor the fend off fentanyl a commending chairman brown and Ranking Member scott, for drafting and bringing to the floor, the f. E. N. D. Off fentanyl act. There are 60 of us who supported it. And i tried my best to get it included onal Defense Authorization act. Unfortunately, i believe as senator scott indicated, the republicans in the house objected to it. We have to get it done. I would ask, again, with deford, and the rest of the panel, to comment on why you think this legislation is so critical and how it would be helpful. First of all, i think this piece of legislation is extremely helpful, because it is stopping the core of supply. It is stopping the supply chain and doing everything we can to put a kink in that. But equally, i think that any bill bringing attention, i think, the most brilliant thing set up here, is with my friend next to me said, what does it take to make it a crisis . Will it be half 1 Million People per year . I tell you what, we are pretty close. Thank you, mr. Yoes . The end result is, weare seeing it happen. There is no question, it is in front of us. No matter, every minute we take to discuss and argue about what is the proper path to go, we are losing lives and we are losing this war. And the reality is, we newly need to pull together and realize this transcends w, from the perspective of the police on the street. You see that dimension, but there is another possible dimension, that chinas interest is not just to make money but really undermine the social fabric, in competition. Look, my view is a little ff i guess we are looking at a global perspective here. You know, our members are more focused on how it is affecting our communities. Lets just be honest. No way in the world that china does not know the damage that is being done in this country. You are either fixing the problem or you are part of the problem. Their knowledge of the damage that is being done and not taking any action is, in fact their action. Thank you. Mr the law allows for more sanctions, and it will benefit Law Enforcement targeting Money Laundering networks, too. It takes forfeited property and it puts it back into Law Enforcement investigative operations. Additieded, there are opportunities that exist right now in terms of taking that data in, networking that, and pushing it out to identify the networks and engage them. It would help authorities and local authorities, in terms of targeting fentanyl. Absolutely. We want to map the network. It takes a network to defeat the network. These are networked organized crime activities. You need communication, transportation, and Financial Transactions for it to work efficiently. It is working efficiently, unfortunately,to attack all components. Mr. Yoes, from the perspective of a street officer, you would, i think, concur that they may not know where all of but they need the information . No doubt. Information is key. Thank you very much. This is a critical problem in rhode island. Unfortunately, there are 444 rhode islanders, for the smallest state in the country, that is a lot of people. Thank you. Thank you senator, you are recognized. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Every state is a border state right now, when it comes to fentanyl, including my home state of wyoming, which one has to pass through both new mexico and colorado to get north to wyoming, but we know that fentanyl, the precursor chemicals, and many of the traffickers themselves are bringing this poison in via the southern border, so it is the crisis at the border failed policies at the border that are the chief contributors to the deaths of more than 73,000 americans in 2022. Fentanyl deaths in wyoming have gone up n. In 2019, there were 11 due to fentanyl overdose. That number has risen to 53, in 2022. My state has the smallest population of any state in across the country is terrifying. Laramie county, which is cheyenne, that is right along i 80, which is a major corridor, east to , u. S. Last june, Police Seized more than 9000 fentanyl hills in a single bust. So we know that interstate 80 is a corridor for hese drugs, once they ge so this is a very timely hearing. And i appreciate you all being here today. And we also know there is a surge in migrants at the southern border, that personnel are focused on processing them. And that takes attention away from the trafficking of drugs. So, it has coincided when there is a surge in Illegal Migrants crossing the border, there is also a surge in the transport of illegal drugs, fentanyl first and foremost among them. So, we have got to get our southern border under control. For the sake of americans who are dying, because of our open border policies. That will not receive the attention from the Current Administration that it needs. , a couple of questions, mr. Urbanand mr. Yoes. How well do federal Law Enforcement agencies, whether it is i. C. E. Or cbp, communicate with state forcement, when it comes to cases in which deceased fentanyl has been traced back to cartels . In a general sense, they cooperate well. In terms of the threat, they need to cooperate better. There needs to be more comedic asian. Be the advantage of taking advantage of the data th should be immediately downloaded and taken back to determine who else that individual was in contact with in the network. And in a moments notice, the other individuals, that he is connected to, again, within the Mexican Cartel network, with speed. I will just add to that, the working relationship between dea and the Homeland Security task force play a pivotal role in our investigation. And we have a good am a strong working relationship in sharing information. But the demand is outpacing what the bandwidth is. So, mr. Urban, how do we build and use technology . So that we can understand how cartels are operating, and build of their activities . So, so, again, compared to when i target undercover Money Laundering activities, with wiretaps opportunity exists to intake that data. We have a large data tanks, fbi, dha, and the individual enforcement, whether it is a car stop or the arrests, we want to pull that data in. One, it maps out the network and like i talked about earlier, they are connected through transportation, communication, and amounts of money. Two, with speed, because if you had this platform set up, within federal Law Enforcement agencies, you could kick out target packages, where they would be able to go effect arrests Law Enforcement. I want to thank you, gentlemen, my time is up, but i want to thank you, mr. Deford, or using your platform as a celebrity to call attention to this issue. We are grateful for your attendance today. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you let me thank you and the Ranking Member for your leadership and your legislation. And thank all of you for being here and for your efforts to address this crisis that we facing. We know that drug cartels manufacture fake pills resembling Prescription Medications that are least lethal doses. They cunningly concealed fe drugs, knowingly poisoning americans, for their own profit. To share one devastating story, from my home state of maryland, a young ladytrinity ripley lost her life tose after consuming a counterfeit pill just before christmas last year. Trinity was only 18 years old, the daughter of christine and von ripley, a councilmember in the town of died the first time she took an illicit bill at any time. People like trinity, without an opioid tolerance Face Even Greater risks of succumbing. Her father has spoken, had spoken to her about the safety issues and the challenge with peer pressure. In his advocacy in this issue, mr. Ripley has said, quote, the thing that drives me nuts is that one pill can kill. And now he worries about trinitys younger brother, xander, potentially facing the same threat. In 2021, the dea launched the one pill can kill Public Awareness campaign. Can you talk about what specific strategies that state and local Law Enforcement agencies are using that are, in your view, the most effective . Unfortunately, there are a whole lot trinities out there and you are right, one pill can kill. We are seeing that over and over and over. From a Law Enforcement standpoint, we are putting band aids on problems, because there is so much activity taking place. There are really a couple of facets, we talked a little bit about it, but there is another facet, too. It should not be taking away from the enforcement side of it, but it is programs like this. You know, we are talking about the suppliers. A lot of this legislation is geared specifically towards those who are manufacturing and those who are bringing it in. The reality is we need to focus on this, on the other side as well. How it is affecting communities, families, and the education portion of it, as well. Thank you and mr. Deford, i have been listening to your testimony for my office and all of the testimony. Thank you for the powerful voice that you bring to crisis. Your experience, your music, it cuts across party lines and brings people together, rather than dividing them. As all of us know, nobody cares whether someone has overdosed from fentanyl, if they are a democrat, republican, or anything else. Thank you for your unifying voice in this crisis. You mentioned that your city being one of the epicenters of the federal print prices and that is, our state of maryland, like others, has not escaped this scourge. If you can juon your experience, whether there are any misconceptions that others have, about the group of people who end up using or dying from fentanyl, misconceptions that people have that can help us better address this crisis. I want the record that i am an orioles fan. I think the story of trinity is the main story that we can reference right now about the misunderstanding abountanyl is doing. The drug addict is shifting, right . It is not always the drug addicts, sometimes it is the young lady who took a pill the night before christmas to maybe get to sleep or get the anxiety of christmas off. I do not know trinitys story, but i know, with my experience, that she did not take that pill to lose her life. Excuse my language. The days of doing cocaine in the bathroom with a stranger are long behind us. My wife and i do not even trust tylenol that has been opened now. That is how scary of a place we live in now, the biggest misconception is that it has not already ended up in your home and you are listening to this thinking, it never well will, you are wrong. It is on its way to your living room. I suggest that we stand up and be more, as fast as we possibly can. Thank you for that important message. Senator james of montana is recognized. Thank you. We have a bunch of fans in montana who listen to jellyroll a lot, welcome to the swamp in d. C. I like to listen to you in my pickup, back in montana, i am very proud of what you are doing as a role model and the message that you have right now, people will listen to you more than people who wear ties. Thank you. I have had the opportunity to me and everywhere else, discussing the fentanyl crisis, it is wreaking havoc in our communities, there are tribal leaders, Border Patrol agents, and others, they are all fentanyl is flooding across the southern border, and reaching our communities in record time and killing americans at horrific rate. We do not have numbers yet for 2023 for montana, finalized, but the Montana Drug Task force has been on track to seize nearly half a million doses of that is double from last years record shattering seizures. This is not about urban areas. It is not just about states cl in northern border state. We border canada. But we have a southern border crisis. Cbp numbers in fiscal 2023, they seized enough fentanyl at the southern border to kill the entire population of the United States. These are sobering numbers. And with jelly roll s public advocacy, letting people know that you do not die from an overdose, you die from poisoning by fentanyl. Think of a Little Package of sweet and low, if that were fentanyl, it is enough to kill 500 people. Riley should wraps, one more of the tragic stories, he passed away after taking a pill that was laced with fentanyl, and last year i hadthe honor of meeting rileys dad to be my guest. Tragically, rileys story is becoming more and more common, as fentanyl continues to infiltrate every corner of every community in america. I will continue to work with my colleagues to clean this up, in many ways a manmade crisis. A crisis that starts at the southern border, and with the precursors in china, to stem the flow of fentanyl in this coun so that no more families, no more montgrieve the loss of a loved one to this drug. Mr. Yoes, in your opinion, has the crisis at the southern border made the harder, in terms of illicit drugs and crime . I think anytime you have a system where demand is outpacing resources, it is going to be a challenge. I think we are there. We clearly are. There is some really strong discussion in the senate about a solution to the border and i am really looking forward to being part of that and learning more about it and being part of that solution. It is something that we need to recognize. There is damage being done. Thank you. Mr. Urban, have mexican drug cartels taken advantage of the crisis at the southern border to elicit and to traffic these illicit drugs in the United States . The Mexican Cartels are exploiting the border, they are trafficking drugs across the border every day, as we have talked about. In a general sense, we need to turn thborder into an asset, as a chokepoint, in terms of the transportation of fentanyl. It taka network to defeat a network. We need to understand how it is getting across and be able to effectively increase interdiction at the border. Do you think the administration is doing enough . To deter the chinese entities that profit off of rs . I think that sanctions offer a real opportunity in terms of offensive strategies against chemical precursors and the chinese enemweies move from six to nine months to more like four to six weeks and dramatic in scale, in terms of the numbers of sanctions you can put out. Jelly roll, in terms of cartels operating in the United States, what role e thget fentanyl distributed . I have had a complete change in life that i used to side with the criminals but these days, i side with the law. I believe it is imperative that we do something about it. The story of the cartel, tending drugs into america, it is tale as old as time. To your point, people are not overdosing because theyre doing too much. People are overdosing, because they are doing a you. Mr. Chairman . Senator warnock is recognized. Thank you two to all of our witnesses. I would like to say, deford, jelly roll, i heard your sermon. And i was wondering what you were doing on sunday. You know well, from your drugs began in 1971, ushering in federal and state policies that resulted in an explosion of drugrelated deathsimpacted by this. The United States prison population bloomed from under 250,000 people to more than 1. 4 million. The number of food dr. King, was written we celebrate in a few days, we could not imagine. The consequences of incarceration can be lasting in many states. They have obstacles in finding a job, even voting. The forms of discrimination, they have been reinscribed in the context of the american if we treat addiction like a Law Enforcement problem, we will hobble out entire communities, to fill overcrowded and privatized leaving communities no saver. I would like to ask as you have told the story of your past, you were arrested and prison ford drug related offenses, including violent ones. How is that felony conviction on your record affected you, a successful wrapper and i have carried it any way that you can carry it, senator. At i am not allowed into and i never thought i would matter until i had hit records in canada and now not allowed to go, not allowed to vote, any core right has be from me. I struggled to buy a home. Homeowner insurances were trying to charge me premiums because of my felony. This thing has hit me ways that you could not even describe. The h away would not let me live there. In my state, there is a Violent Offender policy were a crime where i committed when i was 15, i will never get expunged. I carry that still today. It is really a story of redemption. I preach about every week. You a cloud over your head unable to vote and struggling to buy a home. Its hard to always in your back pocket. Thank you for that. Folks that are struggling with addiction need healthcare and treatment. Not permanent incarceration. Which as you described it people are shackled even when they are not incarcerated. Do you believe that access to s early on couldve kept you out of trouble with the law . I believe that drug addiction is a Mental Health problem. Drug dealing is a Law Enforcement problem. Drug addiction is a Mental Health problem. If i juvenile years and if we focused on education and less on discipline with our youth, we could get mounds moved. Thank you for your voice on this and the ways in which you are usinmusic in your platform to help people that are dealing with addiction issues, we need you to help us get it right. I push for the illicit to provide funds for Substance Use disorder treatment. For the recovery and diversion programs. Working with me to get my provision in the bill before it goes to the ok chairman brown to make sure that this important provision is included before this bill passes congress. Thank you so much for your voice on such. Im not educated enough to speak on this, i will say, i have a feeling there will be more than enough money to go around. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of the witnesses for taking your time to be here with us today. Talking about such an important of my colleagues have said. There is a devastating fentanyl crisis which is only getting worse on the daily. We need to secure it with more personnel. We have to fix the broken asylum process. We have to stop the abuse of parole, bolster interior enforcement and catch release, back in mexico, we owe it to the citizens of our great nation to secure it and help of fentanyl. This is the economic crisis and humanitarian crisis. The cost on humans is heartbreaking and gut wrenching, the influx of has left no community untouched. The day after christmas Law Enforcement in the state of alabama seized enough fentanyl from two individuals to kill every Single Person in the largest two cities. You start to think about that and think about the impact of that, just in one seizure. We heard many stories today about 79 million doseyl seized across america in 2022, enough to kill every single american or every single alabama and 75 times over. The results this poison that is happening. Its clear. Over 100,000 overdoses to be exact in 2023. Of death in the 80s between 18 and 45. These numbers represent real people. They represent pain and tragedy. They represent loss. They all have faces and stories that are Touching Every corner of your society. Congratulations emendous success. We appreciate you being here today and for you sharing your personal story. Your story is one of salvation. A lot of people in life to share the peaks. Your willingness to show values talk about your relationship with our lord and savior, jesus christ, that will give someone else the courage to climb too. Yo story. Thank you for your willingness to do it here in such a public way, today. As we say here, not every family has a story of success like that. When they sit down for dinner in alabama or wherever they may be across the nation, there will be a chair where someone should thare not. Because of fentanyl poisoning and because of the effects of this drug. We saw this last year when a twoyearold was found dead in alabama with fentanyl in her system. As i travel out of state in the nation, i hear these stories of heartbreak and that are gutwrenching. When i was at the border last year, i went to san diego last year. An officer was talking to us telling us the story of a mom that had two boys. Two. They broke apart and they shared a percocet. It was laced with fentanyl and both of those boys died. As a parent, no one ugh that. No parent should have to deal with that heartbreak. Im ready for us to do something now, not tomorrow, today. We owe it to the kids great nation. I just would like to say and know from your perspective, where are the gaps . We see technology chaining and what china is doing, getting them to mexico across the border. They are liquefying fentanyl. All of the things, where the gaps . I am almost out of time. We are the gaps in our technology . Lets go down the line and then i will be out of time. Give the ability for federal Law Enforcement to wiretap encrypted applications. We need those extra tools to map the organizations and hold them accountable. Do you have anything to add . I want to add to your sentiment that the 109,000 people are people, they are humans, every one of them mother, a father, sons, cousins, people just like in this room. Its important for you to say that. Thank you for them. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I dont know if any of my colleagues, mr. Chairman, do you have any ink , and i am familiar with your work. Im fan of the genre. I am an eric church guy. Ive seen them in concert and everything. Anyway, theres no reason you would know me and know my record. Before i became a senator i was the Lieutenant Governor of pennsylvania and i was in charge of the pardons process here in my state. Of my platform is Second Chances. I signed off on thousands of pardons. I believe in redemption. I have made that very critical. I know you have been clear about redemption as well. He has infused your work. What do you believe . That americans that are living their best life now deserve a Second Chance . They deserve redemption . Your thoughts on that . Absolutely. I will be honest, i would be lying if i told you it was just a Second Chance and im here for. God bless me with a third and fourth and fifth. I gave god every reason not to give me another chance. He did. When he gave me a megaphone, i made a point to scream as often as possible with his praises and with writing wrongs. You are one of the few politicians i was familiar with because you just like me. Which i think is awesome. I never give advice on fashion. I think your message about a Second Chance really reaches a lot of people that may not be open to that. My opponent on the other side really weapon eyes my stan for a Second Chance and believing in redemption. I am easy on crime. Lawless and those kinds of things. Thath. That two things can be true at the same time. We must be very smart on crime and have a secure border to talk about the discourage of fentanyl. We must have a path for redemption and to be made whole you are attributing to that as well too. On the other side of that, we cannot ever make the streets safer without the police. I will just say this, there is a neighborhood in philadelphia, kensington, ground zero of fentanyl. You will see that on fox and i dont agree with that. Ive been arnd in its real, its there. We cannot effectively address our we make that successful and safe. We cannot do that without your membership in philadelphia as well. Fundamentally also, i want to salute the new mayor, mayor parker in philadelphia. She understands that we have to address the situation in kensington. I support that. I believe that we cannot demonize our police as well. We have to be part of the solutionsupport that. A lot of the politics that get involved and my believe in a Second Chance has been weapon eyes. Many members of the membership believe that i am lawless and anticop and that is not the truth. Two things can be true at the same time. We need a strong and fully energized police department. We also believe that believing in a secondchance is compatible . I do agree. To some extent, we are modifying behavior to some extent. There is no question. One mistake does not mean that you throw someone away, obviously. The hardline is second, third, fourth, how many people get hurt along the way. Thall wrap our arms around on how effective some of this is. You are right. You are correct. When we are all working together to recognize the problem in finding solutions to the problem, we do find solutions. When we do not Work Together, it is a airman, 30 seconds more . I in kensington. I support the mayors efforts. It is possible with the police and we have to understand we need to Work Together on that. That is a base case on addressing our nation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Sender butler is recognized from california. For the hearing and the ranking number, an incredibly important topic. Thank you for being here. Representing the stat important for me to be here and to be part of raising the voice and telling the story of 40 million californians who have been managing difficulty of this drug and have brought to faand orn, and those who have immigrated, to our great cities. I want to appreciate all of you for being here in california. Fentanyl has been the cause of 77 of drug deaths around teenagers last year. We have all talked about the statistics and how they show that overdoses involving fentanyl were behind one in five deaths people aged 1524. And i think they are robbing our state and our country, robbing our state and our country of our future. Mr. Jelly roll. I join all my callings in celebrating your leadership, your voice, your willingness to offer your time, your talent, and your treasure to our country. Also, interestingly, joining my callings and listening to your and i am grateful for the message of redemption from a california girl born in the state of mississippi. There is Nothing Better than bringing together all of the genres of music that you bring. Telling the story of not only just your own journey in life, but your story of redemption and inviting your listeners into threlationship with god. When i listen to of trinity or the twoyearold that has been mentioned by senator briggs from alabamto think of my own nineyearold ericas daughters and sons that are faced with these challenges have been noted in california. What california did is speak to the ise of education and intervention that you mentioned before. Knowing somelegislation known as melanies law. An overdose in hollywood involving a 15yearold. The law mandates that every public schooltraining to School Employees on opioid prevention, lifesaving response under a plan known as the comprehensive School Safety plan. As a parent, i want to ask, about the whole problem. I appreciate you recognizing that and calling into the space that we are whole people and this is a will problem. I would love to hear you expound a little bit more based on your experience as an addict and as someone willing to share your story and as a parent, moat what more can we be doing to face the will problem . At question. I will start with a personal story. We have a 15 normal 16yearold daughter. Like every 16yearold, she has experimented with marijuana. Nothing to do with this committee. For the purposes of the story, i am promarijuana. It petrified me because she was smoking cartridge pens. I felt a fear is a father that i have never felt before in that moment. I will also give you this as a testimony to how i do business personally, i take 10 buses on tour. All 10 buses are required to have testing strips, narcan and fibula risers. Even the sober bus gets them because i know that sometimes it can be the trinity effect, one guy relapsed into one pill and was not ready for it. The melanie act that is one should be across the country. Education is so important and the kids dont realize. Experimenting with drugs is not safe for children anymore. D experiment with drugs and that time is not now. We have to continue to drive that down. I dont trust my daughters smokinbacco. Out of the plastic, i dont trust it. Thats sad. Now we are living thing is worse for an american than to live in fear. Thank you so much for that. This leads me to my next us. In the interaction with Law Enforcement, i spent 18 years labor movement. So often, there is policy conversation held around the members profession without the inclusion of the voice of workers at the center of implthat policy. I appreciate your representation on behalf of the members on being a part of this. My question is very much connected to what was outlin are we doing enough . To train and ensure the appropriate supplies for Law Enforcement officers to do what they signed up to do. Saving the lives of american children. Ingestion of fentanyl. They are not seeking to take fentanyl. They are ingesting counterfeit pills, perceived to be Something Else. Do the officersthey need . Is there legislation that you would suggest to ensure. If we are not, and ensuring that we should do more . Do the officers need those overdo to answer your first question, are we doing enough . There are hundred and 10,000 people last year, i would say that we are clearly not even coming close, there is work to be done. There is no Law Enforcement ficer that wants to go and deal with any of explain that poison that was on the street we were not able to prevent being there has taken the life of one of their loved ones. There are two parts to it. When we talk considerably about both of them, we focus now largely on the supply. Nish. Other part of this, we talked extensively about it. We need better education. It has to be. We can take one part of this and not fix the problem. It has to be a holistic approach. If we dont have Community Aspects to this, we dont have the empire meant of the community being part of the solution, your supply and demand, we have to address both sides. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. It is important when we talk about this holistic approach, i was the attorney general addressing methamphetamine, opioids, fentanyl, 80 of the drugs that are consumed that come from are consumed because the demand is here in the United States. It is demand along with the supply that we have to address. Here is what is important for me. It is key here. Its a relationship and partnership between Law Enforcement and Mental Health and Substance Abuse. The healthcare piece of it is key, just like law enforcemt is. I just so appreciate you being here. You said this. This is true for nevada as well. There is nobody who is not touched by this when it comes to fentanyl or Substance Abuse in general. That is why it is important that we continue to fund and support both signs of it. The benefit for everyone here, i want you to know, at the end of 2022, congress made one of the biggest investments in Mental Health and Substance Abuse programs. 2 billion in additional money to Substance Abuse programs the last few years. That was the longest that weve ever seen congress doing. Is it enough . No, is a start . Yes. As were talking about these issues, if you have a challenge of it is your physical care or Substance Abuse,to to get help and you have the funds to do and it is accessible. There is no more stigma associated with it. We have to front end and help people. This is what im hearing from all of you as well. This partnership. To address the Drug Trafficking side of it. I was just down at the border down in arizona. There is a challenge with the drugs coming across the border. Including too much fentanyl. This administration has 14 billion that they Want Congress to support to address not just the drug things that are happening at the border. Im hoping my colleagues of both sides of the aisle recognize that this is important. Heres my question. I appreciate your comments, i heard very clearly what else we need to do with respect to Law Enforcement support, it takes too long. We kn from former Law Enforcement, the quicker you can get on it and follow the money, the quicker you can stop trafficking. Im there and i hope my colleagues can hear this as well. Thank you for everything you do. Let me talk about the Rural Communities and tribal communities. What i know in nevada, as we address this in some of the major urban areas, Law Enforcement is tackling it and working with partnerships of the federal state and local level. The Rural Communities on the tribal communities are these cartels are taking advantage of that with trafficking. What else should we be doing . I have a piece of legislation to give smaller la communities tools that they need for training, hiring, working. People do not realize you cannot send an undercover into a small community. They will know who the undercover is. Can you talk about that . The need to address this in the Rural Communities as of this belief that the World Community has less problems. The Rural Community is alsoa Global Community with a social Media Network and this is where a lot of these drugs are if you are in a big city or small town, the same accessibility and it affects people the same. Is what social media platforms have as well. A vehicle to bring this to communities. What do local communities need . They have to recognize that there is no one immune to it. Regardless of the size of the community. They need resources to be able to do it. A lot of it would be easy to suggest. It is a mindset. We have to recognize that those resources need to be across the board regardless community. Mr. Urban, can you talk about the cartels . They are talking about taking advantage of the geographical areas when it comes to peddling and trafficking in Rural Communities. They have infiltrated every in the United States. Cities, Transportation System to move money through the Financial Networks here. It will take a Team Approach to go after the network of the Mexican Cartels, and we have to go after them in mexico as well. The chairman talked about the support were one of the bills that i have. We know ntanat ze it is devastating. This is prophet fothese cartels. This is where they are making their money. This is one of the things i always get when it introduced legislation from some folks is its not working so why do it . Why pass this legislation . The war on drugs is a failure soe doing anything . What is your response to that . The fentanyl deaths that we spoke about earlier i would describe as those young teenagers being murdered. We owe them justice. We all of their parents justice. As a federal agent im frustrated by with going on in our country right now. Everyone that attack from fentanyl overdose or poisoning the Mexican Cartels anyone that is facility that trade needs to be brought to justice. And we talk about uniting as a country, we can all unite be imposed on these nefarious actors. Thank you. Of you for being a today providing testimony. Senators who wish to submiestions for the record those questions or do one week from today, tuesday january 18 sosses the three of you please respond within 45 45 days of our sending you questions to respond to any of those. Thank you again. The hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [i conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible cversations]w÷ [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversat] [inaudible conversations] hinson hsident in ence nd uestio a campaign to 124 coverage here here on cspan, the cspan radio app were online at cspan. Org. This week watch cspans campaign 2024 coverage as were on the ground in New Hampshire with president ial candidates in the final week of campaigning before the first inhe here the candidates closing arguments can watch voters meet the candidates and experience what its like on the campaign trail. Watch on the cspan networks, cspan now our free mobile app or online at cspan. Org campaign2024. Cspan. Org campaign2024. Cspan your unfiltered view of politics. We t you live to the floor of the u. S. 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