During a congressional field hearing on fentanyl and illegal immigration on Wednesday in the South of Texas, several lawmakers accused China and Mexico of not doing enough to stem the flow of the illicit synthetic drug. “Most illicit fentanyl is being smuggled across the border are being produced by cartels in Mexico with precursor ingredients sourced by China. Criminals and drug dealers are selling these deadly substances in communities that are killing a record number of Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Two subcommittees of the Energy and Commerce Committee — Health, and Investigations and Oversight — on Wednesday night had held the first field hearing of this new Republican-led Congress in the border town of Weslaco, Texas. It was the third border-related hearing since the session began, and the first held outside the confines of the U.S. Capitol itself. Pretty major, if you ask me. However, when asked by lawmakers what other countries are supply precursors for fentanyl, Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said: “Only China.”
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, questions witnesses on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, during a field hearing in Weslaco, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
During the nearly three-hour hearing, McMorris Rodgers said that in 2021, there were around or even more than 71,000 overdoses related to fentanyl in the United States and most of the drugs came across the southern border from Mexico with ingredients supplied directly from China and assembled by drug cartels in the city.
She said in December she met DEA Administrator Anne Milgram “and she told me they’d identified 160,000 plants in China that are producing the chemicals that now make their way to Mexico that are then used to produce fentanyl-related substances making their way into theJudd testified that migrants who pay smugglers to get them across the border often are found with backpacks full of illicit drugs, including fentanyl. Commercial vehicles, like in Laredo, Texas, also are packed with illegal drugs, and he said the Mexican cartels do whatever they can, given the geography of the border, to cross drugs north.
“There is no one-size-fits all. The border has many different dynamics. For instance in Tucson there is no river; in McAllen, there is a large river. The cartels use the different landscapes,” Judd said. A December report by the Congressional Research Service noted: “Direct flows of fentanyl from China are now largely stemmed. U.S. counternarcotics policy with regard to China has shifted to preventing Chinese-sourced fentanyl precursors from entering the U.S.-bound fentanyl supply chain via third countries.”
