Fentanyl Hearing Starring Country Music Star Jelly Roll Talks Sanctions; Mainly Threatens China

Some tough talk of sanctions also could be heard at the hearing.  But in this case, only China was mentioned as a target.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said if the U.S. was serious about fighting fentanyl trafficking, it needed to hold foreign governments accountable. “In November, China and the U.S. announced resumption of cooperation on counter narcotics, but what has China done to crack down on fentanyl and fentanyl precursors going to Mexico?”

Urben said that there has been “limited action” in this regard on the China front. 

Menendez asked about Mexico’s support.

“With the cartels ability to corrupt governments, Mexico’s work has been very limited,” Urben said, to which Menendez said he would reintroduce is Strengthening Fentanyl Sanctions Act to sanction the fentanyl traders. “We have to put pressure on them.” 

The bill does not go after the nation state, however, and would only go after tough-to-target cartel members and private Chinese companies producing KSM for export to Mexico. As much of this exists in the black market, it will be hard for such a policy to work.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said the U.S. needs to categorize the fentanyl crisis as a national security emergency “because it is one,” he said, addressing the three witnesses. He only singled out China in this case and not Mexico.

“I wonder if there is a state sponsor of terrorism argument we can make here,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) asked Urben. “This is a weapon of chemical warfare entering our country. I know that assumes a lot, but how much does China know that this is doing tremendous damage to our workforce, and can we pressure them to stop it?”

Urben said sanctions were “a real opportunity” and that once applied, the U.S. can then “dramatically increase the scale of sanctions against China companies selling precursor chemicals.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) noted that his state has the infamous title of being No. 2 in the nation in terms of death by fentanyl overdose. Nashville is being destroyed by fentanyl addiction and drug dealing. “We seized around 26 thousand pounds of fentanyl last year at the border, which is where we have sophisticated equipment to screen. More is flooding in here, and not just through our formal ports of entry,” he said, without mentioning mail or solutions to the years-old crisis.

Sanctioning bills were the main solution tossed around at the hearing.

The Committee introduced Sen. Tim Scott’s bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act to the Senate. The bill, like Menendez’s bill, goes after Chinese chemical suppliers and Mexican cartels. An early version of the bill provided exemptions if the sanctions interfere with the USMCA free trade agreement, but was stripped from the legislation on June 22. 

“This critical bill must become law,” DeFord said in his testimony to the Committee.

Urban said the FEND Act could be best used to sanction money laundering operations in the U.S., which he says are primarily run by Chinese nationals in the country working in cahoots with drug gangs here and with the large cartels of Mexico.