Last week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., threw his support behind a bill “to formally designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-WV, introduced the “Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act” with Scott as a co-sponsor.
“As these cartels continue to invade our porous southern border with illicit guns and drugs that are killing hundreds of Americans each day, this designation is needed to ramp up efforts to combat them,” Marshall’s office noted.
“The illicit drugs and other deadly activities being carried out by cartels are killing Americans at record rates. Since Joe Biden and the Democrats continue to turn a blind eye, we are going to do something about it by designating the drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” said Marshall. “As these cartels continue to invade our porous southern border in an increasingly militarized approach, this designation is needed to ramp up our efforts to combat them. We will not rest in our fight to stop fentanyl’s terrible scourge wreaking havoc in Kansas and across the U.S.”
“Fentanyl is a leading cause of death among young people in the United States—and those who knowingly distribute the highly lethal drug are declaring war on Americans. For far too long, people have suffered addiction and death because of this evil drug that is pouring across Joe Biden’s open southern border; and to put an end to this crisis, these cartels must be held accountable and classified as terrorists. I am proud to join Senator Marshall in standing up against this crisis and urge this commonsense legislation pass the Senate immediately,” Scott said.
If the bill is passed, the Reynosa/Los Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel would be listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“The senators’ legislation would also require a report on possible additional cartels to give the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation,” Marshall’s office noted. “ This declaration would:make it against the law for individuals to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to the cartel to enter the United States; ban any foreign citizen from entering the United States who is a member of one of these cartels, is formally associated with the organization or who has ‘engaged in terrorist activity’ relating to that organization” and “grant the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to freeze the assets of each cartel and block any transactions relating to those assets.”
Marshall’s bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So far, there is no companion measure over in the U.S. House.
