[Senate Hearing 112-384]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-384
EXPLORING DRUG GANGS' EVER-EVOLVING
TACTICS TO PENETRATE THE BORDER AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S ABILITY TO
STOP THEM
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HEARING
before the
AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISASTER RECOVERY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
of the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 31, 2011
__________
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
JON TESTER, Montana ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MARK BEGICH, Alaska RAND PAUL, Kentucky
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Nicholas A. Rossi, Minority Staff Director
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Joyce Ward Publications Clerk and GPO Detailee
AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISASTER RECOVERY
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas, Chairman
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts
JON TESTER, Montana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
Kirk Robertson, Majority Staff Director
Ryan Tully, Minority Staff Director
Jason Bockenstedt, Professional Staff Member
Kelsey Stroud, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statement:
Page
Senator Pryor................................................ 1
Senator Ensign............................................... 3
Prepared statements:
Senator Pryor................................................ 29
Senator Ensign............................................... 36
WITNESSES
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Donna Bucella, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Intelligence and
Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department
of Homeland Security........................................... 5
James A. Dinkins, Executive Director, U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security...... 7
Thomas H. Harrigan, Assistant Administrator and Chief of
Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of
Justice........................................................ 9
Frances Flener, Arkansas State Drug Director, State of Arkansas.. 20
L. Kent Bitsko, Executive Director, Nevada High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area............................................... 23
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Bitsko, L. Kent:
Testimony.................................................... 23
Prepared statement........................................... 79
Bucella, Donna:
Testimony.................................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 38
Dinkins, James A.:
Testimony.................................................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 49
Flener, Frances:
Testimony.................................................... 20
Prepared statement........................................... 72
Harrigan, Thomas H.:
Testimony.................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 62
APPENDIX
Photos referenced by Senator Pryor............................... 33
Photos referenced by Senator Pryor............................... 34
Photo referenced by Senator Pryor................................ 35
Questions and responses for the Record from:
Ms. Bucella.................................................. 85
Mr. Dinkins.................................................. 94
Mr. Harrigan................................................. 101
EXPLORING DRUG GANGS'
EVER-EVOLVING TACTICS TO PENETRATE
THE BORDER AND THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT'S ABILITY TO STOP THEM
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THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery
and Intergovernmental Affairs,
of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m., in
Room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Mark L.
Pryor, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Pryor and Ensign.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PRYOR
Senator Pryor. I want to thank everybody for being here,
and I certainly want to thank Senator Ensign for being here.
Before we begin, I want to offer my condolences to the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the family of ICE
Agent Jaime J. Zapata. Agent Zapata was killed after he and
Victor Avila were shot in the line of duty in February. These
agents will always be remembered for their heroic service, and
I extend my wishes for a speedy recovery to Agent Avila and
pray that Agent Zapata's family is comforted through this very
difficult time.
Today, this Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and
Intergovernmental Affairs will discuss methods drug gangs are
using to penetrate the Southwest border in an effort to traffic
drugs and people into the United States. We have asked
witnesses from the Federal border protection and drug
enforcement agencies to join us today, as well as officials
from the States of Arkansas and Nevada.
I would like to extend a special thank you to Ms. Fran
Flener for being here today and traveling from Arkansas. She is
not only a dear friend, but she also happens to be a very
knowledgeable expert and I am glad she is able to be here
today.
The fight to secure the United States borders is a constant
concern for the people living in the border States as well as
the government officials who represent them. There are few
threats as deadly and menacing as those posed by drug gangs,
particularly Mexican drug gangs, operating near the border.
Many Americans, and likewise, many lawmakers, may be inclined
to believe that this problem is for the border States only and
for the border States to solve, yet there can be no doubt that
this is a problem for all Americans, North to South, Coast to
Coast. An estimated 230 American cities, including three cities
in Arkansas, have a presence of the Mexican drug cartels in
their communities. We must do everything we can to disrupt
their networks and to prevent them from moving product onto
American soil.
News coming out of the Southwest is filled with stories
detailing new and inventive tactics the drug gangs have
employed in an effort to move greater quantities of drugs and
people across the United States border. Drug gangs have begun
to use bold tactics that include creating mock border patrol
vehicles to bypass legitimate border officials, and modifying
vehicles to look like Wal-Mart trucks or FedEx vans. Just last
week, a white van pulled up to a border checkpoint along
Interstate 8 in eastern San Diego County. The van appeared to
be filled with Marines in uniforms. According to the Associated
Press, a plainclothes Border Patrol Agent who had served in the
Marine Corps became suspicious when the driver did not know the
birthday of the Marine Corps. In the end, 13 fake Marines were
actually illegal Mexican immigrants and two were suspected drug
smugglers.
The efforts of drug gangs to smuggle people and goods range
from the truly bizarre to the truly extraordinary. This past
January, U.S. National Guard troops at the Naco Border Patrol
station about 80 miles southwest of Tucson alerted the Mexican
Army after a surveillance camera spotted several traffickers
hurling bundles of marijuana over the border with a catapult.
The catapult was found about 20 yards from the border on a
flatbed platform towed by an SUV, according to the Associated
Press.
Officials estimate that Mexican drug cartels smuggle up to
$25 billion of illegal drugs, as well as people, into the
United States. They also have begun to use small planes or
ultralight aircraft to fly over the border and beneath radar
detection. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
Agency (CBP), from October 2009 to mid-April 2010, the agency
detected 193 suspected airspace incursions and 135 confirmed
incursions by ultralight aircraft. The U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Agency believes the number of incursions
over the border more than tripled between fiscal years 2009 and
2010, from 118 to 379. However, only 10 ultralights have been
seized and only 27 people arrested for using them to smuggle
drugs.
Drug gangs have also begun using drug submarines, mostly to
transport cocaine from Colombia into Mexico, although more
recently, they have been found closer to U.S. waters. While
most drug submarines are unsophisticated, and unable to dive
deep into the seas, and propelled by small diesel engines, some
drug gangs are now spending money on more advanced submarines.
According to a recent Homeland Security Today article that ran
in July of last year, Ecuadorian counternarcotics officials
working with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized a fully
operational submarine built for the primary purpose of
transporting multi-ton quantities of cocaine. The submarine
came equipped with a periscope and air conditioning system. DEA
intelligence helped lead the seizure of the submarine, which
was the first seizure of its kind.
Another hard-to-detect tactic is the use of drug tunnels.
While the use of these tunnels is known to be widespread, they
continue to evolve in both number and sophistication. In 2006,
CBP had discovered 75 smuggling tunnels along the U.S.-Mexican
border. These tunnels range from unsophisticated just boar-
holes stretching hundreds of feet in length, to far more
sophisticated tunnels made with wood and cinderblock walls,
rail systems, electricity, and ventilation. Last Thanksgiving,
United States and Mexican authorities discovered a tunnel that
started in the kitchen of a home in Tijuana, Mexico. The tunnel
ran a half-mile, or about 7 football fields, into two Southern
California warehouse. The tunnel was found when officials
noticed a tractor trailer arriving at a warehouse in Southern
California and the authorities found the truck stuffed with
27,000 600-pound packages of marijuana worth $20 million.
Tunnels dug into the warehouse present a particular problem
because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of privately
owned warehouses in cities along the border. Border security
personnel have expressed frustration that they do not have the
resources to adequately attack this problem.
These are just a few examples that may illustrate the scope
and the scale of the problem, so the intent of this hearing is
to, first, examine the strategies our Federal agencies are
employing to stop drug gangs; second, the level of coordination
between Federal agencies and between Federal agencies and State
and local governments; and third, whether agencies have the
resources and manpower to creatively respond to these new
tactics. We will also hear from Arkansas and Nevada witnesses
about the consequences that result when drug gangs succeed and
their products reach our cities. Senator Ensign.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ENSIGN
Senator Ensign. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a very
important hearing today and I want to thank all of our
witnesses who have taken the time out of their schedules to
testify, including Lieutenant Kent Bitsko, who has traveled
here from Nevada.
I also want to thank all the men and women who work very
hard 24-7 every day of the year to secure our borders. Those
who work at our Nation's air, land, and seaports, those who are
on foreign postings, those who work in our Nation's interior,
whether in uniform or plainclothes, whether they are from ICE,
CBP, DEA, or other Federal, State, or local agencies. They all
deserve sincere appreciation for doing a very tough job and
doing it very well.
Some of these officers have made the ultimate sacrifice.
From decades past, we recall the service of DEA Special Agent
Enrique ``Kike'' Camarena. In recent years, we mourned the loss
of Border Patrol Agents Robert Rosas and Brian Terry, and now
in just the past few months, we suffered the loss, as the
Chairman said, of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata. All served
their Nation well, and we can best honor them by taking up
their fallen standard and continuing and ultimately finishing
their work by securing our borders.
We will discuss today various tactics used by the drug and
alien smugglers to achieve their goals, from disguising illegal
aliens as U.S. Marines in uniform and traveling in vehicles
masquerading as official U.S. Government transports, to using
submarines and small boats to haul dope up our coasts, to
crafting elaborate tunnels underneath our borders that bring
illegal aliens and dangerous narcotics and other contraband
into our country, the drug and alien smugglers will literally
stop at nothing.
The situation at our southern border is, without a doubt,
very critical to our current and our future security. According
to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), in its 2010
study, the calendar year 2009 saw an increase in the
availability of heroin, methamphetamines, and marijuana
smuggled over our southern border. The insidious reach of the
Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) across our
southern border and into our communities is not limited
strictly to the border area, through which they peddle their
drugs with deadly results. Again, according to the NDIC,
Mexican drug cartels are the only DTOs active in every region
of the United States, including the States of every Member of
this Subcommittee.
These drug cartels' reach has even arrived here in our
Nation's capital. The Washington Post reported recently that
the D.C. Metropolitan Police and special agents from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security
investigations arrested 8 suspects believed to be connected
with Mexico's La Familia drug cartel, whose objective was to
expand their operation in this District and the surrounding
area. This multi-city investigation netted over $5 million
worth of crystal meth alone.
Just as ominous, the Mexican drug cartels, according to
reports, have expanded their relationship with street and
prison gangs in the United States and have increased their
distribution of illegal drugs into more rural and suburban
areas. This drug trade has brought enormous revenues to these
cartels. Tens of billions of dollars are smuggled from the
United States throughout the Southwest border into Mexico. This
blood money helps the cartels tempt some of our officers on the
border to forsake their oaths to uphold the law for private
gain. We know, however, that these dirty few are just a small
microcosm of the total workforce and the vast majority are
truly the rule to the exception.
The end result is that innocent people are caught up in the
violence. The Mexican government reported recently that over
34,000 people have been killed in their country in drug war-
related deaths since 2007. Considering that last year's total
of 15,273 marked almost a 59 percent increase in the numbers.
Unfortunately, those numbers are still going up.
The violence has also occurred in our country. Drug and
alien smugglers have kidnapped innocent people to further their
objectives, have emboldened street gangs to become more
violent, thus placing more of our brave law enforcement
officers and ourselves in greater danger.
This is a battle that we must win. We must win it because
the drugs and the violence threaten individuals and communities
across our Nation. We must win it because we need secure
borders to ensure our national security. And we must win it on
behalf of those who already have made the ultimate sacrifice in
this fight.
Again, I want to thank our witnesses and you, Mr. Chairman,
for holding this very important hearing.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Senator Ensign.
We have three very good witnesses in our first panel and I
want to welcome each of you to the Subcommittee. What we are
going to do is have you do your opening statement in about 5
minutes. But first, let me just run down the list and introduce
each one of you very quickly and then I will open up with you,
Ms. Bucella.
Our first witness today is Donna Bucella. She is the
Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Intelligence and
Operations at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.
Our next witness is James Dinkins. He is Executive Director
of the Office of Homeland Security Investigations at U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Our third witness is Thomas Harrigan. He is the Assistant
Administrator and Chief of Operations at the Drug Enforcement
Administration.
I want to thank all of you all for being here, and Ms.
Bucella, if you would lead off. Thank you.
TESTIMONY OF DONNA BUCELLA,\1\ ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, OFFICE
OF INTELLIGENCE AND OPERATIONS, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER
PROTECTION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Ms. Bucella. Good morning, Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member
Ensign. It is a pleasure to appear before you today to discuss
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's efforts to secure our
Nation's borders. As America's front-line border agency, CBP is
responsible for securing America's borders against threats
while facilitating legal trade and travel.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Bucella appears in the appendix
on page 38.
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I would like to begin by recognizing those at the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who have given their
lives in the service to our Nation. The loss of these brave
agents is a stark reminder of the sacrifices made by the men
and women of DHS every day. It also strengthens our resolve to
continue to do everything in our power to protect against,
mitigate, and respond to the threats and secure our border.
Over the past 2 years, DHS has dedicated historic levels of
personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border.
With funding providing by the enacted 2010 Border Security
Supplement, we are continuing to add technology, manpower, and
infrastructure to the Southwest border.
Nonetheless, CBP still faces significant challenges. We
remain concerned about the drug cartel violence taking place in
Mexico and continue to guard against spillover effects in the
United States. We will continue to assess and support the
investments in the manpower, technology, and resources that
have proven to be effective over the last 2 years in order to
keep our borders secure and the communities along it safe.
Our mission is complex and challenging. Vast open expanses
of remote and rugged terrain between our ports of entry (POEs),
coupled with the large volumes of legitimate trade and traffic
at our ports of entry, are regularly exploited by smugglers and
other cross-border criminal organizations. To further
complicate our interdiction efforts, smugglers use a wide range
of ever-evolving methods to attempt to move their illicit goods
into the United States, both at and between our ports of entry.
In general, marijuana is the primary form of contraband
encountered between the ports of entry, while smugglers attempt
to move cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine through the ports
of entry. While the routes and smuggling techniques differ
somewhat in these environments, the challenge for our front-
line personnel remains the same.
Examples of concealment techniques in vehicles and
commercial conveyances include the exploitation of natural
factory voids in vehicles, airbag compartments, quarter panels,
transmissions, non-factory compartments in engine airtake
manifolds, batteries, radiators, and gas tanks. These
concealment techniques are used to illicitly move all manner of
contraband, from narcotics, currency, firearms, and on some
occasions people. To detect this contraband in vehicles and
other conveyances, we employ a wide range of interdiction
methods, to include officer intuition, behavioral observation,
fiber optic scopes, and non-intrusive inspection technologies.
Even with the deployment of all this, in the real
environment, drug trafficking organizations continue to use the
rail cars to transport narcotics to and across the Southwest
border. One of the most common techniques is the use of natural
voids in the chassis systems of the various rail cars.
Due to the increased CBP land and air intradiction efforts
against the U.S.-Mexico border, drug and human smuggling and
trafficking organizations are increasingly turning to maritime
smuggling routes to get their illegal cargo into the United
States. Mexican smuggling organizations use a variety of
methods to enter into the United States, including the use of
small wooden vessels to evade detection. These organizations
also use pleasure boats, shrimp boats, fishing boats in an
attempt to blend into legitimate boat trafficking.
In the ravine environment, a primary method of crossing
illegal goods and people through our borders are use of high-
speed vessels that can come across the rivers in a matter of
seconds. Other methods, such as the ultralight aircraft, which
are attractive to smugglers because of their size and
capability to fly extremely low. Detecting the tracking of
ultralight aircraft is very difficult using standard radar
technologies.
In addition, smuggling methods include use of tunnels.
Tunnels have ranged from very sophisticated to very
rudimentary. CBP works with ICE, DEA, and the Department of
Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to test
and ultimately deploy tunnel detection technology.
We also work with our foreign, State, local, Tribal, and
Federal partners to address the problems of the Southwest
border and combat transnational threats. CBP hosts a weekly
Southwest State of the Border teleconference in which we share
the different types of concealment techniques and methods with
our partners. These teleconferences include up to 290
participants on a weekly basis.
Beyond this measure, in recent months, we announced the
Arizona Joint Field Command at CBP. This brings together and
aligns Border Patrol, air and marine field operations under a
unified command structure to better, in a more comprehensive
way, meet the unique challenges faced at our border, especially
in Arizona.
Despite these many challenges we face in our operational
areas of responsibility, we have, through collaboration and
coordination with our partner, made great strides. With your
continued assistance, we will continue to refine and further
enhance our effectiveness in detection and interdiction
capabilities.
Thank you for this opportunity for me to testify about the
work at CBP. We are committed to providing our front-line
agents and officers with the tools they need to effectively
achieve the primary mission of securing our borders, and I look
forward to answering any of your questions.
Senator Pryor. Thank you. Mr. Dinkins.
TESTIMONY OF JAMES A. DINKINS,\1\ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, U.S.
IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HOMELAND SECURITY
Mr. Dinkins. Chairman Pryor and Ranking Member Ensign, on
behalf of Secretary Napolitano and Assistant Secretary Morton,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to discuss ICE's
efforts to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle transnational
criminal organizations.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Dinkins appears in the appendix
on page 49.
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As you mentioned, we experienced a terrible tragedy within
our agency last month involving two Special Agents assigned to
our Mexico office. Special Agent Jaime Zapata lost his life,
and Special Agent Victor Avila was seriously injured after
being ambushed while driving in a U.S. Government vehicle. This
senseless act of violence serves as a clear reminder of the
dangers confronted and sacrifices made each and every day by
our Nation's law enforcement officers. Our prayers remain with
both the Zapata family for their loss and for Special Agent
Victor Avila's speedy recovery.
Since the incident, ICE Special Agents have been working
with our Federal law enforcement partners at DHS and the
Department of Justice (DOJ) to support our Mexican partners in
their efforts to track down the perpetrators of this heinous
attack and to ensure those responsible for the murder of
Special Agent Zapata are brought to justice.
As you know, the illicit flow of drugs, money, weapons, as
well as human smuggling and trafficking are part of a complex
interconnected system of illicit pathways and international
criminal organizations that span the globe. ICE targets these
criminal organizations at every critical phase in the illicit
cycle--internationally with our foreign law enforcement
partners, where the drugs are produced and the drugs originate,
at our borders with CBP, where the transportation cells attempt
to exploit America's legitimate trade, travel, and
transportation systems, and throughout the United States with
our Federal, State, and local, Tribal law enforcement partners
in large and small communities where the criminal organizations
earn substantial profits from the sale and distribution of
their illicit cargo.
To combat these transnational criminal organizations, ICE
has 69 offices in 47 countries, as well as more than 200
offices located throughout the United States. This includes
substantial resources along the Southwest border, where since
March 2009, ICE has doubled the personnel assigned to the
Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) program,
increased the number of intelligence analysts, and have
deployed nearly five times more border liaison officers to work
with our Mexican counterparts. Indeed, ICE now has nearly one-
quarter of our personnel assigned to the Southwest border, more
Special Agents and officers than ever before.
I am pleased to report our efforts to dismantle
transnational criminal organizations are producing results. For
example, in November 2010, the San Diego Tunnel Task Force,
which is part of the San Diego BEST, discovered two tunnels and
seized more than 50 tons of marijuana. The first tunnel,
discovered on November 2, 2010, was a 600-yard underground
cross-border passageway equipped with rail, lighting, and
ventilation systems. Solid investigative work in collaboration
with our Mexican law enforcement partners led to the discovery
and resulted in the seizure of 30 tons of marijuana.
The second tunnel, discovered on November 26, 2010, was
even more sophisticated, included reinforced supports, advanced
rail, and electrical and ventilation systems. This tunnel
discovery resulted in the arrests of eight individuals and the
seizure of more than 20 tons of marijuana.
We have also observed increasing collaboration between drug
trafficking organizations and transnational gangs. To combat
transnational gangs, in 2005, ICE launched Operation Community
Shield, and since that time, we have arrested more than 20,000
gang members and associates. Seven-thousand-six-hundred-and-
ninety-nine of those had prior violent criminal histories.
Just last month, ICE completed Project Southern Tempest,
the largest ever ICE-led national initiative targeting gangs
with ties to the Mexican drug trafficking organizations.
Southern Tempest involved operations in over 160 U.S. cities,
working side by side with more than 173 Federal, State, and
local law enforcement agencies and led to the arrests of over
600 gang members and associates. This operation demonstrates
the need to not only combat criminal organizations operating
along the Southern border, but also targeting their operations
throughout the United States and abroad.
I want to thank you again for the opportunity to be here
today and appreciate all the support you have provided to ICE
in our efforts to combat transnational smuggling, and I would
be happy to answer any questions.
Senator Pryor. Thank you. Mr. Harrigan.
TESTIMONY OF THOMAS H. HARRIGAN,\1\ ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR AND
CHIEF OF OPERATIONS, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Mr. Harrigan. Good morning, Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member
Ensign. On behalf of the men and women and the Administrator of
the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michele Leonhart, I
appreciate your invitation to testify today regarding the
sophisticated methods that Mexican drug trafficking
organizations use to move illegal drugs through Mexico and into
the United States.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Harrigan appears in the appendix
on page 62.
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Please know, in carrying out its mission, the DEA and the
border begins with the sources of supply in South America. DEA
has the largest United States law enforcement presence
overseas, and since 1973 has been assigned the global
enforcement mission that extends far beyond our Nation's
borders.
Our strategy in the Western Hemisphere is named the Drug
Flow Attack Strategy. The Drug Flow Attack Strategy acts as a
forward defense, a defense in debt, if you will, of the United
States by interdicting the flow of illegal drugs and
traffickers who smuggle them northward before they reach Mexico
or the Southwest border. Stopping the drugs before they reach
Mexico and the Southwest border impacts the United States drug
supply, weakens the Mexican cartels, and helps reduce border
violence.
The Southwest border and the security threat posed by drug
trafficking along the border is not a new issue for the DEA. As
the lead United States law enforcement agency responsible for
enforcing the drug laws of the United States, DEA special
agents have been on the front line of both sides of the
Southwest border for decades, gathering intelligence and
conducting enforcement operations to dismantle the most
powerful and ruthless drug trafficking organizations. The
operations of these organizations have destabilizing effects
not only in the border region, but throughout Mexico.
The Southwest border is the principal arrival zone for most
illegal drugs smuggled into the United States as well as being
the predominant staging area for the drugs' subsequent
distribution throughout the United States. This area is
particularly vulnerable to drug smuggling because of the
enormous volume of people and legitimate goods crossing the
border between the two countries each day.
DEA's Concealment Trap Initiative (CTI), contracts the
service providers who build concealed trap compartments or use
natural voids in vehicles and other conveyances for drug
trafficking organizations to conceal their drugs entering the
United States and to conceal bulk currency destined for Mexico
from the U.S. Drug traffickers recognize that bulk currency is
subject to seizure and easily forfeited when discovered by law
enforcement authorities. To counter this, they employ a myriad
of techniques, including the use of concealment traps, to
impede law enforcement efforts to discover and seize illicit
drug proceeds. DEA seized just under $39 million in addition to
drugs and weapons in 2010 under this program alone.
The DEA works vigorously in cooperation with its Federal,
State, local, and foreign counterparts in mounting a sustained
and aggressive organizational attack strategy against the
Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The disruption and
dismantlement of these organizations, the denial of proceeds,
and the seizure of assets significantly impacts the
organizations' ability to exercise influence and to further
destabilize the region.
Project Reckoning, Operation Accelerator, Project Coronado,
and most recently Operation Bombardier are all examples of this
collaboration. While these collaborative operations are
extended to break the power and impunity of the cartels in the
short term, they also exacerbate the violence in Mexico. These
efforts are directly supported by the DEA-led El Paso
Intelligence Center (EPIC). EPIC is a multi-agency tactical and
strategic intelligence center consisting of almost 30 law
enforcement organizations, to include representatives from
Mexico and Colombia.
There are several noteworthy interagency efforts being
coordinated along the Southwest border, as well. The first of
these is President Obama's National Southwest Border
Counternarcotics Strategy that was introduced last year by
Attorney General Holder, DHS Secretary Napolitano, and Director
Kerlikowske from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
This strategy is designed to stem the flow of illegal drugs and
their illicit proceeds across the Southwest border and reduce
associated crime and violence in the region.
Another excellent example is the Southwest Border
Initiative, which has been in operation since 1994. This multi-
agency enforcement operation attacks Mexico-based drug
trafficking organizations operating along the Southwest border.
In a cooperative effort, DEA, the Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI), ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Attorneys' Offices
around the country conduct judicially approved electronic wire
intercepts that ultimately identify all levels of these
organizations.
In short, guided by intelligence, DEA is working diligently
on both sides of the border to stem the flow of illegal drugs
and assist our Mexican counterparts. DEA recognizes that
interagency and international collaboration and coordination is
fundamental to our success. DEA will continue to closely
monitor the security situation in Mexico and ensure that the
rampant violence does not spill over the border by continuing
to lend assistance and support to the Calderon administration.
Again, Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member Ensign, I want to
thank you for this opportunity to testify and we will be happy
to address any questions you may have.
Senator Pryor. Thank you all for your testimony and for
being here today and all the things that you do.
Let me start with a general question really for the whole
panel. Each of you in your agencies play a very important role
in this. Just a general question. Are there overlaps where
there should not be? Are there gaps where there should not be?
How is the system working? If there are conflicts among the
agencies, how are those resolved? So Ms. Bucella.
Ms. Bucella. Right now, we are embedded, literally, with
ICE and their groups and with DEA, whether it is incident or
Special Operations Division. We are also embedded with ICE and
DEA at EPIC. Really, it is a collaborative. Many of us have
been given the charter to do somewhat different. For us, it is
protect the borders. We really are the interdictors.
But we can only do that and be successful by giving and
sharing the information that we receive with our partners on
the border. And so there is probably much more that we can do.
We are finding it on a daily basis. We are working closely with
ICE on the San Diego Tunnel Initiative and we have had over 130
tunnels that we have found. And as Mr. Dinkins said, it is very
sophisticated and how we find it is either through technology
and/or from cooperators and from intelligence.
And so I will defer to my partners here, but we, on a daily
basis, our agencies are intertwined because of the roles and
missions that we each have that might be a little bit unique.
Mr. Dinkins. Yes, sir. As she had mentioned, we do have
distinctive roles in what we do, although there is a combined
mission that we all share and that is protecting the border,
stopping the flow of drugs, and so forth. And I can tell you,
since I have been doing this job now 15 months, I thought one
of the biggest challenges I would do is actually really with
these two folks here is institutionalize that collaboration,
and it has actually been a pleasure to do so.
Since DHS was created, I can tell you that we have never
had a better working relationship where CBP and ICE are
literally codependent upon each other to get our jobs done,
from the interdiction to taking it under the investigations.
And that has likewise been with the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Since I have been around in 25 years, I do not
think that we have a better, more collaborative working
relationship with DEA. They have a distinctive mission when it
comes to narcotics. We have the mission when it comes to the
smuggling, and those missions blend together. But I would not
call it overlap as much as a partnership.
Mr. Harrigan. Thank you very much, Senator. As Donna and
Jim said, Senator, without question, I think the coordination
and collaboration between the agencies, and not just the
agencies represented here at the table but the interagency, as
well, to include the Governments of Mexico, and as I mentioned
in my opening statement, the Southwest border for DEA starts in
Colombia. That is where we key our resources to target the
organizations and the cartels that move the drugs through
Central America and Mexico, as well.
So everything we do is intelligence-driven. We try to work
smarter, obviously with less. And we que up ICE. We will que up
the interdictive CBP, as well, based upon the information and
the intelligence that we derive from our sources down--and our
counterparts, as well--down in Colombia and Central America,
because, again, when you measure seizures down along the
isthmus of Central America or in Colombia, you typically count
it by multi-tons. When seizures are made along the border, we
typically count them in maybe pound or kilo quantities. So
again, we direct our resources down south of the border but
work extremely closely with ICE and CBP, because if not, we are
going to fail.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Dinkins, let me just ask you this, since
you are in the middle of the table and you are talking about
how well everything works together, and I am glad to hear that,
but with multi-agencies involved, is the decisionmaking
sometimes slow or cumbersome? I mean, can we streamline
anything or does it need any streamlining?
Mr. Dinkins. Generally, our field commanders downrange, our
Special Agents in Charge and Port Directors and the DFOs from
CBP, they are the ones that are interacting on a daily basis,
literally working side by side with each other. So those
decisions are made instantaneously as those cases are developed
and present themselves. So there is not a bottleneck where
things are having to go up to a headquarters structure and so
forth of being worked out. Most of these cases might be led by
one agency or another agency, but there are joint decisions
being made along that investigation, along the way.
Senator Pryor. Right. So right here, we have a photo of, I
guess this is the catapult\1\ contraption that someone seized,
I guess the Mexican Army seized this on the Mexican side of the
border. And then I have a couple of others that I will show
that are some vans\2\ and trucks\3\ that have been modified and
painted and maybe stolen. I am not quite sure of the whole
story of these. But these are examples of how the cartel has
taken extraordinary measures to try to get things across the
border.
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\1\ The photo referenced by Senator Pryor appears in the appendix
on page 33.
\2\ The photo referenced by Senator Pryor appears in the appendix
on page 33.
\3\ The photo referenced by Senator Pryor appears in the appendix
on page 34.
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It seems like their tactics are always changing and they
just kind of have a kaleidoscope of options there and it is
like they will try anything to get the drugs across. So how do
we keep up with that? I can start with anyone, but why not you,
Ms. Bucella, and tell us, how do we keep up with that? Is it a
training matter, or how do we stay on top of this?
Ms. Bucella. It is imagination and innovation. The drug
cartels are not hampered or limited by money. They have a
business model and they will throw whatever they have at it.
In addition, I think what has been absolutely evident to us
is this is not a Federal law enforcement response. This is
Federal, State, and local. We are literally on the borders
dealing with our State and local counterparts because they see
people come into the community. They see some strange things
happening. And if we can identify that person who is bringing
drugs into the United States through ICE and DEA and then find
out sort of where they are, what the routes, methods, manners,
and means, how did it happen. I mean, we many times have seen
busloads filled with millions of dollars of money leaving the
United States.
So that is where our work begins. That is where we try to
share all the information. It is no longer a matter of it is
mine and my information not to share with one another. Because
the drug cartels are so innovative and so quick and so
adaptable, we have to work together.
Senator Ensign. Well, once again, thank you all for being
here. I have a few questions--actually, I have a lot of
questions, but some of them, we will submit for the record
because of the limited time today.
But just to address the corruption problem, even though it
may be limited, obviously, that is something that has to be
addressed so that it does not spread. I know that there have
been cases where the one woman who was found to be corrupt,
hanging out at the bars with the drug dealers and things like
that, can you describe basically for any of your organizations
the methods that you use to try to detect whether there is
potential corruption, whether an officer is being corrupted,
and the preventative techniques? I know it is impossible to
eliminate it completely. We are talking about a lot of money
here and the potential is always going to be there. But can you
just describe some of the things that you look for? We can just
start and go down the table.
Ms. Bucella. On behalf of CBP, when we have insight into
the corruption cases, because DHS IG really is the lead on
that, for us, it is trying to figure out all the method,
manners, and means, and then instill for training. Fortunately
also for CBP, because we have technology using many different
types of readers when people are coming through the entry, we
can take a look and go back looking at the technology to figure
out who was in what lane and when and how, and sometimes when
there has been detection of drugs in a vehicle or something, we
can go back and figure out who was on the line at that time. So
a lot of it is training.
One of the challenges that we have is that we are not
necessarily always aware of the number of corruption
investigations, because as I said, it is usually led by DHS
Inspector General and with the partnership at times with ICE.
Senator Ensign. Mr. Dinkins.
Mr. Dinkins. At ICE, in the hiring process, one thing is
that we hire a lot of our Special Agents because the
requirements--they are coming from other law enforcement
agencies, so they actually even have a proven track record. So
we are bringing them on after they have already had one
background investigation. Now they are getting a second check
and balance, as well. And if they have had any administrative
issues with their previous agency, we can actually remove them
from the process.
But in addition to that, while you are on the job, I still
am amazed that we have over a 20-year-old case management
system, but that case management system, every time you key a
stroke into the system, it is recorded. So if you were to run
my name, for example, it is going to be recorded, and those
things get audited regularly, so that actually can tell you if
somebody is actually searching outside of their lane where they
should not be looking for cartels to see if somebody is under
investigation and so forth.
As well as a good, healthy organization, to make sure that
people realize that it is not tolerated at all is by having
good checks and balances in your system just on everyday
administrative things, ensuring that there are repercussions
for the small things that might seem to be a technical,
administrative violation, but in fact, that can perpetuate
itself into an environment where people feel that it is OK to
violate the rules. So it is really by having a whole, complete
approach to integrity.
Mr. Harrigan. Senator, you are exactly right. I do not
think we could ever obviously eliminate corruption, but we
could certainly minimize it. What DEA does in Mexico, we
partner up very closely. We have what we call our Sensitive
Investigative Units (SIUs), and these police officers are hand
picked, not only by DEA but by our counterparts, in this case,
our Mexican counterparts, the Mexican Federal Police, the
Mexican PGR, and the Attorney General's Office. These offices
are vetted. They are Leahy-vetted. There is background
investigations conducted, as well. They are trained by DEA down
in our academy in Quantico. And they really are the best of the
best, if you will. We have enormous confidence in them.
We have, like I said, since 1973, have had the largest U.S.
Federal law enforcement presence overseas, and knock on wood,
there has been very minimal corruption, not only in Mexico, but
we have 13 of these SIUs around the world, whether it is
Mexico, Colombia, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia. So again, we
attempt to minimize the corruption, and I think we have been--
and the Mexicans lately have been extremely successful.
There was the arrest several years ago in Mexico of someone
in the Deputy Attorney General's Office who was accepting
bribes from one of the cartels to the tune of about $450,000
per month. So again, working very closely with our Mexican
counterparts, especially through these SIUs, because that is
where we bring our most significant investigations are
conducted through the SIU in an attempt to, again, limit and
minimize the effect of corruption.
Senator Ensign. If we could just try to take a larger view,
we know, as all the testimony, the reports that we get, they
are getting more and more sophisticated. They are kind of like
the--they are very much like the terrorist organizations. We do
one thing; they adjust to it. They are going to constantly
adjust.
But the bigger picture item is do we have the resources,
are we putting the kind of resources that we need to protect
our country from drugs, from other types of illicit activities
that could come across our borders, especially, obviously, the
Southwest border--by the way, I want to compliment--I have been
down there, and it is extraordinary what you all are doing. It
really is, the professionalism. Many years ago, it was not
looked at that way, but the law enforcement professionalism now
on the border is really extraordinary.
But the other side of the border is continuing to get
worse. The violence, obviously, we hear about is getting worse.
And there is a great deal, because the money is getting larger
and we have obviously a demand problem on this side. I think
the Mexican government is exactly right, that we need to do a
lot more about the demand problem. I have actually encouraged
the President in his State of the Union Address, I wish that
actually he would address that, basically, that if you are
using drugs in the United States, kind of sending that message
from the White House that if you are using drugs in the United
States, that you are hurting our national security, that you
are funding these incredibly violent drug cartels as well as
other terrorists around the world.
But looking at the big picture, do we have the kind of
resources that we need and what more can Congress do? Do we
need the military down there or the National Guard or whatever?
Do we need more agents in the various departments? Do we need
more technology? Is it more of the fence? Is it more--
obviously, between submarines, between tunnels, between
everything that you have, you have huge challenges. So taking
more of a 30,000-foot picture here, can you kind of describe,
and I just want kind of each one of your perspective on that.
Ms. Bucella. Well, technology is always needed, but trying
to figure out what kind of technology, as you said, they change
all the time. The tunnel technology has been helpful, but you
cannot use something just separately. We need to have
intelligence in using that.
The submersibles and the semi-submersibles you could
probably find, especially if you are up in the air, because
they have to float at some point. But the totally submersibles,
that is a whole different realm in the technology field.
It is a challenge. I think that one of the--as Tom Harrigan
said and Mr. Dinkins, we really do rely and work very hard with
our partners down South. That is integral. And actually with
all of our military. Yesterday, I spent some time with the
Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) North and our people that
are down there, and they are down at EPIC and they are helping
with us. Not that the Department of Defense (DOD) solution is
the solution, but frankly, we can leverage some of the skill
sets that they have.
For us, some of the topography in Arizona is much like
Afghanistan. So we can look to our DOD partners to find out
what technologies they are using that could be helpful for us.
So it really is trying to identify what technologies are out
there and then communicate with our partners to try to leverage
the best technologies that are out there.
Senator Ensign. Mr. Dinkins.
Mr. Dinkins. Yes, I think both of you have actually
recognized the fact, is this is not just a border issue. We
just cannot put all of our resources on the border and expect
that this is going to be the problem solver. We really have to
look at where the root of the problem is, and as Mr. Harrigan
mentioned with DEA, for example, in narcotics, the source of
the narcotics can be as far away as Colombia and we have to
ensure that we are working to deal with those threats actually
before they hit our border. But also, we also have to make sure
that those organizations that are operating within our
communities are actually being held accountable for their
illegal actions, because that is where a significant amount of
the proceeds are actually being generated from.
I would say we are at all high levels at ICE. I mean, we
have grown substantially. We have a lot of resources. There is
still room to grow as far as technology goes. There are,
overseas and deployment of overseas, it is not just--for
example, if you can work in South and Central America at the
pathways that are being exploited by alien smuggling
organizations, bringing up the aliens, it is not just enough to
wait for those aliens to hit our border, either. If we can
change policy, work with our Federal and law enforcement
partners to actually interdict those individuals before they
get into Mexico and before they land on our Southwest border,
we are going to be a lot better off.
So as Mr. Harrigan mentioned, they have SIU units. At ICE,
we refer to ours as vetted units. We have nine of those located
throughout the world. They are indispensable because their
priorities become the priorities of what the United States law
enforcement priorities are. They are there to work for you, and
you can trust them because they have been polygraphed, vetted,
and backgrounded. So there is never enough technology, and I
think that we need to continue to push our borders out.
Senator Ensign. Mr. Harrigan, also, when you address this,
just very briefly, does any of the, like, heroin and things
coming from Afghanistan, how does that enter into the United
States, as well?
Mr. Harrigan. Well, typically, sir, in Afghanistan, we see,
despite Afghanistan being the most prolific producer of opium--
it produces over 90 percent of the world's opium--in the United
States, we see less than 3 percent of the heroin seized here
comes from Southwest Asia, comes from Afghanistan. Although,
interestingly enough, our neighbors to the north in Canada,
most of the heroin they are seizing right now, the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, comes from Afghanistan, we have not
seen it yet here in the United States. But the ones that we
have seen, the seizures that have been made have been by
couriers coming over, flights originating in Southwest Asia,
transiting through Europe, and then on to the United States,
primarily the New York area, JFK.
Relative to Mexico, sir, as Donna and Jim alluded to,
technology obviously is the key. Every time it appears that we
develop some sort of new technology to defeat something the
traffickers have, they come up with something new. So again,
technology is always key.
But I think what we need to keep in mind, as I mentioned
earlier, is the continued developments of these SIUs, these
Sensitive Investigative Units, and we cannot lose sight of the
fact, whenever we talk about Mexico or the Southwest border, we
need to keep Central America in the discussion, as well,
because there is unprecedented stress, in my opinion, by the
Mexicans, the government of Mexico, right now on these cartels,
by the United States, by the Colombians from the south. So we
are pushing these cartels, if you will, down south into Central
America.
So DEA is continuing to buildup these SIUs, not only in
Mexico. We have 11 offices right now in Mexico, but we also
have an office in each of the Central America countries, as
well. We are establishing vetted units, and the next degree up
from a vetted unit would be an SIU, and that is what we need to
do to have, I believe, any significant impact on these cartels.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Senator Ensign, and thank you for
all of your responses.
I have several questions for the record, but what I would
like to do is just ask three or four real quick ones to you,
Ms. Bucella, and then we can followup with the panel in
writing.
But let me ask about really the delivery mechanisms that we
talk about. One of the things you talk about is the ultralight
planes and how it is difficult to detect them. It seems to me
that part of that is a technology issue, that you need to have
the proper radars, or exactly how you do that, I am not sure,
but you would have to have the proper detection equipment. But
you also need the people there to respond quickly once you
sense a plane coming or going, because they are not using
traditional airports, I am guessing, in most cases. So what do
we need to do there?
Ms. Bucella. Well, again, I cannot underestimate
intelligence and the informant capability, because the
ultralights end up going to a very remote, rural area, and as
you know, even with some of our technologies, we are not able--
they go to the remote, rural areas, with all due respect, I
believe, knowing that we do not have coverage there. And trying
to get someone in the middle of a desert in the middle of the
night is difficult.
And so the technology part of being able to see overhead
where it is--there are some areas where we know ultralights
generally come in, but it is such a wide area. And so even if
we had coverage up above that, you really have to, especially
if they come in at night, and they do not exactly have lights
on, so you have to really know where you are looking, and it is
almost like looking through a straw, yet you want something
with a higher visibility and much wider coverage.
So that has been a challenge for us, but we are working
together to try to get some of the better technologies for
radar, to be able to censor some of the changes in movement of
the air so that we are able to identify an ultralight going in.
But again, a huge challenge.
Senator Pryor. OK. And also on the submarines, you
mentioned those, and some are true submarines and some are,
what did you call them, semi-submersibles?
Ms. Bucella. Semi-submersibles. In other words, they have
to come up for air, sort of like a turtle.
Senator Pryor. Right. And so where are you seeing these? In
some of the things I read, some of these are not necessarily in
U.S. waters, but they are coming from Latin American countries,
maybe up to Mexico or whatever. So tell us where those are
showing up, how many of those, and what trends you are seeing
there.
Ms. Bucella. Sure. I think it really started from back in
the 1990s when I was a U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of
Florida. We knew that the drugs were coming up from Colombia
and going through Panama, and so we are seeing much of it
through the Caribbean, and some of these semi-submersibles, we
are also finding in Central America, and they literally are
made in parts, three or four large parts. I know Mr. Harrigan
can talk to you a little bit more about that in detail, but
that is what we are starting to see. First it was go-fast
boats, the motherload, short boats, and then the semi-
submersibles, and now the submersibles.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Harrigan.
Mr. Harrigan. Donna brings up a great point. Obviously, as
we spoke about technology before, these organizations just
continue to evolve and to evade technology or develop new
technology. The semi-submersibles, now we see the fully
submersibles. You had alluded to earlier, sir, the fully
submersible that was seized down in the Ecuadorian jungle. That
was based upon collaborative efforts of the Ecuadorian police,
the Colombian police, and the DEA.
The difficulty, it is an incredible difficulty for us and
our counterparts down there. These fully submersibles, are
being constructed in triple-canopy jungle. So it is very
difficult to detect. That is where I had alluded to in my
opening statement where we need sources down there that provide
this information, because the bottom line is without those
sources, there is no way we would have ever detected that fully
submersible.
And another question comes to mind. That particular fully
submersible was getting ready to transport, to smuggle in
drugs. What if it is not drugs? What if it is weapons of mass
destruction? What if it is--you could let your imagination run
wild. So it is not just drugs that they are transporting, and
we have to keep that in mind when we deal with, whether it is a
semi-submersible, or more alarmingly, these fully submersible
vehicles, vessels, now.
Senator Pryor. Thank you. And, Ms. Bucella, really the last
question that I have before we turn it back over to Senator
Ensign and then go to the second panel would be we have a
couple of photographs here of the tunnels, and I think there
are two different locations that we have photographs of. One is
a location you can see that is a very sophisticated tunnel.\1\
I do not know the whole story on that one. And then the second
one shows by aerial photograph\2\ what the tunnel looks like,
1,300 feet long.
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\1\ The photo referenced by Senator Pryor appears in the appendix
on page 34.
\2\ The photo referenced by Senator Pryor appears in the appendix
on page 35.
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So I think in your testimony or in an answer to a question,
you said that I think we found 130 of these so far----
Ms. Bucella. Mm-hmm.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. Or maybe more, and it sounds
like you have some technology to detect, and there again, you
rely on the intelligence to try to understand what is there.
But how can we do better to locate and shut down these tunnels?
Ms. Bucella. Yes, sir. Actually, we have found most of our
tunnels, and I know Mr. Dinkins can talk a little bit about
this, most of our tunnels have been on the Southwest border.
Again, as I said, sometimes we find it just by Border Patrol
agents hearing something beneath them. These tunnels are not--
some of them, frankly, I was down at the border a couple of
weeks ago and it was 80 feet down, sophisticated, air
conditioned units. You could put trains in them. So obviously
they are not being made by somebody with a spoon. But there are
many of them which are--quite frankly, I do not know why
anybody would go down there. They are very, very narrow and
they are able to push them through.
The technology, we are working with DOD and working with
DHS science and technology just to figure out how you can tell
if there is movement underground. The problem with some of
these tunnels, though, is because on the border they have
extensive drainage systems, and that is--some of those are just
drainage systems and are not tunnels, but these cartel members
and narcotics traffickers, they will not stop at anything, sir.
So, really, it is the technology coupled with behavioral
intuition and informants and intelligence.
Senator Pryor. Anybody else on that?
Mr. Dinkins. One thing is I think it is key to point out on
these tunnels, is while we have increasingly seen them rise
over the number that we have actually been able to detect in
the last 2 years, they are also very costly. Some of these are
very costly, like the picture you have up there. They could
take 2 years to build. So there is nothing that gives us more
pleasure than to have somebody take 2 years to build something,
and then just as they are popping their head out of that rabbit
hole, is to crush it back down on top of them. That is
something that we have been successful doing with a lot of
investigative work, too.
On the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, we have CBP, DEA, and
ICE all working together. They developed a lot of good
methodologies that now we are employing all the way over to
Arizona. For example, with border communities that literally
have warehouses and homes right there, they are doing outreach.
They are educating the people, because these folks cannot work
in a vacuum. There is going to be some type of suspicious
activity. So in addition to the technology, good old fashioned
police work and hitting the beat has actually been very
effective, as well.
Senator Pryor. Good. Senator Ensign, did you have any other
questions?
Senator Ensign. Just very quickly, getting back to the subs
issue, is this something that when we get to the fully
submersibles, is this something that is going to take the Navy
being involved with, as well?
Mr. Harrigan. Sir, yes, and as Donna had mentioned earlier,
we work very closely with the Department of Defense. For DEA,
it is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for
Counternarcotics. But JIATF South is very much involved.
SOUTHCOM is very much involved. Yes, we work extraordinarily
closely with them, and also our foreign counterparts, the
Colombian navy, primarily, the Ecuadorian navy, as well.
Senator Ensign. OK. And then, briefly, getting back to the
ultralights and some of these more remote areas, I am very
familiar with the, I like to call them remotely piloted
vehicles instead of the drones, because they actually have a
human flying them, and they do a lot of those actually out of
my home State up at Creech Air Force Base. But is that some of
the technology, more of that is needed with even the wider
camera angles and the more sophistication that they are
developing all the time with that, flying higher, being able to
see more, see at night, the whole thing like that? Is that more
of the technology you are talking about?
Ms. Bucella. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Those are invaluable to
us for a whole host of reasons.
Senator Ensign. OK. Mr. Chairman, I have a lot of
questions. We will just submit those for the record. But I want
to thank the panel, also. It has been excellent testimony this
morning.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, and I do want to thank the panel,
as well. I have some other questions for the record that we
will submit. We will leave the record open for 2 weeks, and I
am sure some of the other Subcommittee members who could not be
here today may have questions for you, as well, so if you can
work with the staff on getting those back to us. Thank you very
much for being here, all three of you.
I will go ahead and introduce our second panel now, and as
we are swapping out the desks there, I will go ahead and just
say a few words about our two witnesses who will testify next.
Our first witness is Fran Flener. She is the Arkansas Drug
Director. She has been there since 2007 and she will talk about
drug distribution threats in Arkansas and what Arkansas is
doing with the Federal Government and other States and local
governments, et cetera.
Our second witness is Kent Bitsko. He is the Director of
the Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), and I
will turn this over to Senator Ensign to properly introduce
him.
Senator Ensign. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Kent Bitsko is a long-time resident of Las Vegas, Executive
Director of the Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a
longtime law enforcement veteran, 30 years with the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department, assigned to vice, narcotics,
training the canine units, helped form the forerunner of High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas and the Drug Interdiction
Crime Enforcement Task Force (DICE). He served 4 years in the
canine program, and as a matter of fact, Las Vegas Metro named
their canine training facility after Kent. It is now called the
Lieutenant Kent Bitsko Canine Training Facility.
He retired. His retirement lasted all of one year and then
he joined HIDTA in 2007 as their Executive Director, and under
his leadership, HIDTA has grown to 12 enforcement task forces
and 4 administrative initiatives.
So we welcome you and thanks for being here.
Senator Pryor. Thank you very much.
Ms. Flener, do you want to go ahead.
TESTIMONY OF FRANCES FLENER,\1\ ARKANSAS STATE DRUG DIRECTOR,
STATE OF ARKANSAS
Ms. Flener. Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member Ensign, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee and honored guests,
it is my distinct pleasure to testify before you today. My name
is Fran Flener and I am the Arkansas State Drug Director. On
behalf of Governor Mike Beebe and our State, I would like to
thank this Subcommittee for its continued support for the
coordination of counternarcotics enforcement at all levels.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Flener appears in the appendix on
page 72.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senator Pryor, we are grateful for your continuing support
of the men and women in law enforcement. Throughout your
career, you have been a champion for crime prevention and
community engagement. A bulletproof vest program that you began
years ago for the increased safety of rural law enforcement
still continues today, and the Secure Our Schools Program has
enabled our kids to have a safer environment in which to study
and learn. For each of these and others, I would like to take
this opportunity to thank you for your outstanding leadership
that has supported law enforcement at all levels.
Arkansas is a predominately rural, agricultural State that
for many reasons serves as an area in which drug trafficking
organizations become established. Its relatively low
population, rural areas, and small law enforcement presence in
some remote regions provide the privacy required by those
manufacturing and/or distributing drugs. Further, Arkansas's
central location in the United States with its interstate
highways provide primary corridors to transport those drugs to
and through the State to the Midwest and the East Coast.
Small Arkansas towns are increasingly facing drug
distribution activities similar to what has historically been
limited to the more urban areas. DTOs have established
themselves as the primary wholesale and mid-level distributors
of methamphetamine, powder cocaine, marijuana, and heroin. As
drug networks expand, cells are progressively being set up in
rural areas to become supply hubs for the metropolitan areas of
the State. This rural-to-urban distribution reflects a reversal
from traditional patterns of the illicit drug trade.
The impact and scope of methamphetamine distribution in
Arkansas is well illustrated by a collaborative investigation
known as Operation Ice Princess. This DEA-led investigation
included five additional Federal agencies, the Arkansas State
Police, the Arkansas Highway Police, four drug task forces,
four county sheriffs, five police departments, and the Arkansas
National Guard. Operation Ice Princess dismantled a large scale
ice methamphetamine distribution ring that was based in
Jonesboro, with distribution cells in five counties.
Investigators learned that these multi-pound quantities of
methamphetamine ice originating in Mexico were regularly being
distributed throughout the State through a network of
distributions located in Jonesboro, Searcy, Kensett, Rose Bud,
Batesville, and Little Rock.
The abuse and diversion of pharmaceuticals in the past 4
years has been an alarming and emerging threat. Many in the law
enforcement community believe drug trafficking organizations,
along with unaffiliated drug-seeking individuals, engage in
robberies and burglaries of pharmacies, forge prescriptions,
doctor shop, and steal from private residences in order to
obtain pharmaceutical drugs to distribute.
Two weeks ago, Governor Beebe signed into law a
prescription drug monitoring program that will address some of
these diversion issues. The implementation of this system,
however, is contingent upon receiving Federal funding through
the National All Schedules Prescription Reporting and the
Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs.
The Gulf Coast HIDTA report that pharmaceuticals, in
addition to being primarily locally diverted, also arrive in
Arkansas via the Southwest border. Law enforcement agencies are
increasingly reporting interdiction of prescription drugs with
any arrests they make, regardless of it is a drug arrest or
not.
The continuing expansion of drug trafficking groups and
their distribution of narcotics through rural Arkansas areas
result in tremendous strains on local criminal justice systems.
Small Arkansas towns, such as Kensett and Rose Bud, with
populations of 1,648 and 459, respectively, lack the necessary
resources to effectively combat this drug problem alone.
Fortunately, Arkansas benefits from having outstanding
relationships and collaboration among Federal, State, and local
law enforcement. Arkansas's participation in federally funded
drug enforcement initiatives serve to provide the means for
greatly enhanced counterdrug efforts. Since joining the Gulf
Coast HIDTA in 2008, Arkansas has gained many advantages in its
capacity to attack the command and control of drug trafficking
organizations. Specifically, it has provided for additional
major case investigations, including complex conspiracy cases,
increased criminal interdiction, enhanced information sharing
and intelligence-based policing, and invaluable drug training.
HIDTA has been the key component in fostering those
partnerships and collaboration among agencies that have led to
a leveraging of resources and increased sharing of
intelligence.
Thanks in part, also, to Federal funding through the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, our State's ability to combine
intelligence has been bolstered by the launching of the State
Fusion Center in 2009. The Fusion Center allows law enforcement
agencies access to an array of intelligence databases.
Arkansas's 19 Byrne/JAG funded drug task forces often initiate
investigations which are later revealed to be components of a
broader drug crime network. These DTFs have continually been
reduced in funding since 2008.
Given the severity of the Nation's drug problems and the
often tragic consequences which result from them, it is of
vital importance that an adequate, sustained level of resources
be devoted to prevention, treatment, and enforcement efforts
that produce results. Federal, State, and local drug
enforcement programs protect rural communities that are
increasingly besieged by violent criminal drug organizations.
Without a full array of law enforcement beginning at the very
fundamental levels that feed intelligence up the chain into
larger agencies, pieces of that puzzle that make up the complex
and well-developed drug trafficking organizations will never be
put together.
We recommend a restoration to the DEA funding for
methamphetamine laboratory cleanup. Other enforcement
operations in public health will suffer if this cleanup funding
is not restored or if less expensive alternatives are not
developed and funded. We also recommend continued funding and
support of prescription monitoring programs across the country.
Without Federal funding, Arkansas will not be able to develop
and implement a PDMP.
Arkansas, while currently experiencing great benefits from
its membership in the Gulf Coast HIDTA, would benefit even more
by the expansion of counties with high drug activity.
Finally, we recommend that the Byrne/JAG Assistance Grants
be funded at the 2002-2003 level. This will benefit programs
nationwide, and in Arkansas, it will allow for an increase in
the proactive development of drug cases.
In conclusion, the abuse, manufacturing, and distribution
of illicit drugs in both Arkansas and the United States pose
serious but not insurmountable challenges. To affect positive
change, a complementary and multifaceted approach, including
prevention, education, treatment, and enforcement is required.
If we are to expect to make a difference in our efforts to
combat drugs and their consequences, each of these components
must remain a high priority and receive all necessary resources
to achieve success.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today, and I
will be happy to answer any questions at your convenience.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Ms. Flener. It is great for you
to be here----
Ms. Flener. Thank you.
Senator Pryor [continuing]. And we appreciate your
traveling up. Mr. Bitsko.
TESTIMONY OF L. KENT BITSKO,\1\ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEVADA HIGH
INTENSITY DRUG TRAFFICKING AREA
Mr. Bitsko. Senator Pryor, Ranking Member Ensign, I
appreciate the opportunity to come and address this
Subcommittee. My testimony is going to address a few cases that
we have experienced in Nevada that outline the impact that the
cartels have directly on Southern Nevada.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Bitsko appears in the appendix on
page 79.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first one got a lot of media attention in 2008. It was
the Cole Puffinburger kidnapping. Cole Puffinburger was a 6-
year-old boy who had the misfortune of having Mr. Tinnemeyer as
his grandfather. Mr. Tinnemeyer was transporting cocaine for
the Sinaloa drug cartel and decided on his sixth trip
transporting 247 kilos from the Southwest border to the East
Coast that he would steal $4.5 million from the cartel. Well,
the cartel contracted with a couple of local cell leaders in
Nevada and kidnapped Cole to try and get his grandfather out of
hiding and to recover the money that he had stolen from them.
We were fortunate enough. Working our HIDTA Investigative
Support Center (ISC) with the Fusion Center led to the recovery
of Cole unharmed and the prosecution of the local cell head
leaders. They were not convicted of the kidnapping, but they
were convicted of drug trafficking.
The second case, we have some pictures, I believe, of a
hidden compartment that was located in a trailer. It was the
Sanchez case. Operatives from the local La Familia cell head
met with undercover operatives at the Mandalay Bay Resort and
Casino in Las Vegas. Over the subsequent couple of weeks, there
were several narcotics undercover buys that transpired. When
they took down Mr. Sanchez and his associates, intelligence led
to his stash house, which was located in the Central Western
part of Las Vegas. When they hit this house with a search
warrant--well, it was a trailer, and the trailer was worth
about $15,000, and the compartment that they found located
under the bed, kind of a basement built under the trailer, they
inadvertently found the button that activated the bed coming
up, opened up the compartment, found automatic weapons, a drug
stash, and they spent $20,000 on the compartment in a trailer
that was not worth $15,000. So it gives you an idea of the
level of commitment that they have in hiding their narcotics
and preventing both the police and their competitive drug
trafficking organizations from getting to their stash.
The third and fourth case that I want to talk a little bit
about, it is a case that the Southern Nevada Drug Task Force, a
part of HIDTA, has been working since 2007. This case started
with a one-ounce cocaine purchase from just a local Mexican
national, did not really know what they had when they started
running this person's name through all the databases that they
had available to them. They discovered that he was very
involved with the La Familia drug cartel, and over the
following 2\1/2\ years this investigation has been going on, it
has resulted in the recovery of $1.1 million in bulk cash, 42
kilos of cocaine, 150 kilos of methamphetamine, 42 search
warrants served, 114 different telephone intercepts, and 65
arrests, dismantled several cartel cells across the Nation.
They worked with DEA's intelligence division and participated
in the dismantlement of cell heads in California and in points
East, also.
This spun into the Meno case, which was another La Familia
cell in Nevada. This gentleman was using an 18-wheeler to pick
up cocaine on the Southwest border and transport it into Las
Vegas and then also many cities in the Central and Eastern part
of the United States. At one point, phone recordings indicated
that he was transporting $450,000 in bulk cash after making his
drug deliveries. It went back to Las Vegas, and before they
could react and get a search warrant at the house, he got it
out of there and it was taken back down to Mexico in the bulk
cash.
These cases are just a sampling of what we are dealing with
in Southern Nevada and what law enforcement and the prosecutors
are tasked with in Southern Nevada.
Some of the things that the cartels are doing that are
trying to thwart the efforts of law enforcement, they are using
Skype, BlackBerry e-mail accounts. They are posting e-mail
drafts to an e-mail account, and then instead of transmitting
them, they are giving that e-mail access code to their co-
conspirators where they can go in and get the message, trying
to keep law enforcement from intercepting. The DTOs in Nevada
are also using Mexican cell services and they are ``push to
talk,'' and because these are based out of Mexico, the law
enforcements cannot get the subscriber information to go up on
warrants and to go up on Title 3s.
Nevada HIDTA has had a significant impact in the law
enforcement cooperation in Nevada, both Washoe County and Clark
County. As Senator Ensign mentioned, we have 12 enforcement
initiatives. This has not always been the case in Southern
Nevada. When I was working narcotics, we would start a task
force and somebody would get mad at somebody else and everybody
would take their toys and go home.
Well, with the advent of the HIDTA and with those heads of
agencies having to sit across the table every quarter with
their Federal counterparts and their State counterparts, any
time there is a difference, they have been able to work it out.
So since 2001 and the advent of HIDTA, we have had an extremely
close working relationship with all the Federal agencies, all
the State and local agencies. It has been a great relationship
and we hope to see that continue.
Thank you very much.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Bitsko. Let me followup on
that last statement you just made about HIDTA. It sounds like
it is a program that has worked well. Are there things that we
can do better or should we expand it, or, I mean, tell me what
the future should look like.
Mr. Bitsko. Well, when you work in law enforcement, you can
always spend more money. I mean, the supply of narcotics out
there for us to go out and purchase and to attack is never
ending. Even in a State that has as small a population as
Nevada--I think we are at about 4 million people--there is
enough that we could work it nonstop.
But the HIDTA has about 120 law enforcement personnel that
is assigned to it. We have a $3.2 million budget. Almost a
little over a third of that goes to our intelligence-based
policing. We are doing fine with money. We really are. The law
enforcement community, because of the economic adversities they
are facing in Nevada, they do not have the personnel to put
more people into the HIDTA task forces. It is amazing to me
that they have been able to continue with their commitment to
the HIDTA, because we have not had anybody reduce their
commitment, but in talking to the heads of agencies, they do
not have any more people. They are, like everybody else, trying
to do more with less, and Nevada has been hit harder
economically than about anyplace else in the country and they
are really struggling to stay above water.
Senator Pryor. Ms. Flener, we have in our State some areas
that are designated HIDTA-designated areas, and how is that
working for us in our State?
Ms. Flener. Well, I cannot echo what Kent has said enough.
HIDTA works. We only have four counties in our State, so we
have two initiatives in the Northwest corner and in Central
Arkansas. So we do not have the I-40, where it comes into
Arkansas or exits Arkansas, and, of course, that is a major
transportation.
But HIDTA has in addition to just those four counties, the
training that HIDTA has enabled law enforcement all across the
State to take advantage of at no cost it is free and it is top-
of-the-line stuff, and the intelligence network that has
brought to the State has been just great. Great. HIDTA works.
Senator Pryor. Good.
Ms. Flener. HIDTA works.
Senator Pryor. And I know that you mentioned we only have
it in four counties in our State, but you also mentioned in
your testimony about some of the challenges in small-town
America and what we are seeing a lot of methamphetamine there
and a lot of other things, of course, as well, but a lot of
methamphetamine there. I assume one of the challenges with
small-town America is that, first, they do not have very big
police forces. They do not have a lot of resources. Walk
through with us some of the challenges that small-town America
faces.
Ms. Flener. Well, when you think about it for a minute,
here you have--for instance, I mentioned Rose Bud, 400 and less
than 500 people in that little community. They have no means to
fund anyone that can just specifically be assigned to drug
enforcement, even though probably 90 percent of their problems
are drug-related. So without funding from drug task forces
through this Byrne/JAG program, we do not have anybody that is
even working drugs. And then now we have been reduced to such a
level that our drug task forces are multi-jurisdictional. They
make up maybe four, five, six counties. They have been reduced.
Maybe they have two law enforcement or two drug agents to cover
that entire area.
The admiration that I have for those people that have
really stuck with this program, they are dedicated, they take
advantage of opportunities when they can. I have quarterly
meetings of the drug force task commanders, and to hear them
come in and tell some of the stories that they do, it is
quite--they have my utmost admiration.
Senator Pryor. Good. Senator Ensign.
Senator Ensign. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and both of you,
once again, thanks for coming from our States to come here and
give us that perspective from local folks after the Feds.
One of the things, as you know, Kent, I have toured Fusion
Centers and DEA and the FBI and the HIDTA centers, and it
really is remarkable, and everybody I keep talking to, the
cooperation and coordination at all levels now is so much
better than it used to be. It used to be so many of the turf
battles. This is our turf. Do not step into it. It is like the
Feds, we are the enemy, or whatever. That seems to have mostly
gone away. I am sure it still happens somewhat, but it seems to
have mostly gone away because it is such a critical issue.
You are dealing with on the front lines, obviously, and
seeing what is happening in the local communities. One of the
questions that I do get that I just always like to ask people
who are on the front lines, you get this question about
legalizing marijuana, legalizing other types of drugs. I would
just like your personal opinion. You guys have been doing this
for a long time. One is on legalizing just marijuana, and then
the other would be on legalizing other types of drugs, because
they say that if--the argument goes this way, that if you
legalize it, you take away the criminal aspect of it. So I am
not trying to prejudice your answer or anything like that. I am
just saying what people who are for legalization say and I
would just like your responses to it, either one.
Mr. Bitsko. Having dealt with this for many years of my law
enforcement career, having seen the impacts of narcotics in my
family, I do not know anybody that decided on a Friday night
that had never done drugs, oh, I think I will go do some crack
cocaine. Everybody starts with something, whether it is
marijuana or whether it is pharmaceuticals. They do not
normally start doing heroin or cocaine or methamphetamine. So I
think it is disingenuous for anybody to say that marijuana is
not a gateway drug.
I will give you a little bit of an idea of the impact that
marijuana is having on the local scene in Las Vegas. At the
beginning of 2010, we had no dispensaries in Las Vegas. By
October 2010, we had 62 dispensaries, marijuana dispensaries in
Las Vegas that were dispensing marijuana and marijuana edibles.
Working in partnership with Las Vegas Metro, with the U.S.
Attorney's Office and DEA, they served search warrants on 18 of
those organizations. They seized over 300 pounds of finished
product, and I do not remember the exact tonnage of edibles
that they seized, but they seized a lot of edibles. They
arrested 18 people on Federal indictments. We have seen--and I
believe it is in direct relation to these dispensaries--the
marijuana indoor grows are up by about 60 percent over the last
3 years. We are on pace in 2011 to do 200 indoor grows in
Southern Nevada. Now, Northern Nevada does not have the problem
with indoor grows because they are getting their marijuana from
over the hill in Central California.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police reported when I was preparing
my annual report and threat assessment that they had eight
homicides in 2010 directly related to marijuana, including a
12-year-old girl that was killed in a home invasion. I think it
was the uncle that was living in the house owed money to a DTO,
and they went over to collect and a home invasion wound up
killing a 12-year-old girl, and that was behind marijuana.
So the effect that marijuana is having on our communities
and on our children and the other segments is--it is almost
indescribable, and it is the biggest cash crop. I mean, we talk
about heroin and methamphetamine and cocaine, but there is a
lot more money being made in Mexico from heroin, or, I mean,
from marijuana than there is the other drugs.
Senator Ensign. So I would take that you would not be for
legalization.
Mr. Bitsko. Oh, no way.
Ms. Flener. I will state right off the record, I am not for
any legalization of marijuana. Kent said it beautifully when he
said nobody goes out and starts with crack cocaine or
methamphetamine or whatever. But look at the problems that we
have with drugs. If we legalize marijuana, the usage will go
up. We do not even begin to take care, through treatment and
prevention, of the problems that we now are experiencing, and
we have programs that work.
I think this goes back to what you said earlier, Senator,
about the need for education, treatment, and prevention. We
have such an education curve that we need to make with
marijuana. The marijuana of the 1960s is not the marijuana of
today. Where is it, in Mississippi? I forget which one of the
universities in Mississippi does the marijuana programs, at
least for our part of the country in terms of testing the drugs
that are confiscated and their drug content. They tell us that
it is going up, like, 600 percent in the drug strength. So no
way do I want to make anything else for my grandkids, Kent's
grandkids, to be the gateway and the path down that slippery
slope of addiction.
Senator Ensign. Well, I want to thank both of you. I have
to actually get to another meeting. I would just like to make
one other comment on it. It is really amazing. Everybody made
fun of Nancy Reagan's ``Just Say No'' campaign, but drug use
during the 1980s really went down dramatically. That is one of
the reasons I said in my opening statement I have been trying
to talk--or in my questioning that the Federal panel has been
trying to talk. I tried to talk President Bush into it when he
was President. I tried to talk to President Obama. I really do
think that the bully pulpit to use to talk to our youth.
Unfortunately, when I go--I speak to high schools all the
time. Kids today think marijuana is a joke. They do. I get
asked this question by young people, every single high school I
go to speak to, almost without fail. They always ask me, how do
you feel about legalizing marijuana? That is why I asked you
the question today. And when somebody asks that question, all
the kids laugh. They do, because marijuana usage to most kids
today is a joke and it needs to become more serious, because
the effects are so devastating. And that is the reason that I
mentioned it today. So I thank both of you for being here.
Ms. Flener. Thank you.
Senator Pryor. Senator Ensign, thank you for being here and
thank you for your questions.
I do have a couple followups with each one of you. On the
Mexican drug cartels, one of the concerns I have is that there
is a lot of gang involvement in the United States that is
Mexican-related, and now I am afraid we are starting to see
that in our prison system. Really, the question I would have is
how do you interpret all this? What do you think it means that
we are seeing more and more gang presence in the United States
that are Mexican drug cartel related and it looks like it is in
the prison system now. I guess the concern I might have is that
when these folks come out of prison, maybe the numbers have
even multiplied in the prison because they come out of prison
ready to go into the Mexican drug gang.
Ms. Flener. Well, here again, we have programs that we are
attempting to fund, the second-chance programs for people that
are coming out of prisons. It is a tough issue. But we have to
have in place follow-up, recovery centers for people that are
leaving prison to integrate them back into society and help
them regain their status of tax-paying citizens in our country.
Healthy organizations are sometimes difficult and require a
lot of leadership. If you want a healthy organization, whether
it is a HIDTA or a drug task force or whatever, you have to
have good people at the helm, and I think we do that to some
extent. We have to improve upon that, too.
Senator Pryor. Mr. Bitsko.
Mr. Bitsko. Nevada has approximately 580 identified gangs
and 20,000 gang members. This has been relatively consistent.
It is going up a little bit. Paisa, I believe is how it is
pronounced, gang is probably the one that is most affiliated
with the Mexican cartels in Nevada, and they are acting as
enforcers. They are acting as distributors.
I think one of the things we have to be careful with, I
mean, the problem is overwhelming the cartel influence, but we
need to be sure that we differentiate between a Mexican
national DTO that is distributing drugs that may be four or
five steps removed from the cartel. So no doubt that the gang
members, no matter what nationality they are, are having a
great impact on the drug dealing in Nevada--that is all I can
speak to, but I am sure across the country--but not all of them
are affiliated with the cartels.
Senator Pryor. Right. Listen, I want to thank both of you
all for being here and coming to Washington and spending your
day with us here. I know that Senator Ensign and I are both
just delighted to have each of you here.
What we will do is, like with the previous panel, we will
leave this record open for 2 weeks. There may be some followup
questions. I am not sure if Senator Ensign had time to ask all
of his of this panel.
But thank you all for being here, and with that, we will
adjourn the hearing.
[Whereupon, at 11:42 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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