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Senators are pressuring the Biden administration to crack down on fentanyl sales through cryptocurrency
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post/Getty Images
TIJUANA, MEXICO – OCTOBER 18: Officials from Mexico’s attorney general’s office unload hundreds of kilos of fentanyl and methamphetamine seized near Ensenada in October at their headquarters in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. No one was arrested in relation to the seizure. (Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
CNN—
A bipartisan pair of US senators are pressuring the Biden administration to do more to crack down on how drug cartels use cryptocurrency to trafficking in fentanyl, a drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, asked about the “specific actions” the administration has taken regarding the role of cryptocurrencies in the fentanyl trade and what metrics the administration uses to measure success in a new letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House obtained by CNN.
The letter reflects growing anxiety in Congress over the fentanyl crisis and the ease with which Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartels can buy ingredients to make the synthetic opioid cheaply online.
A CNN investigation published in August examined the growing use of cryptocurrency in the fentanyl trade and the efforts of the DEA and other agencies to try to single out the threat in their investigations. Those efforts included federal agents poring over notes left by drug traffickers in hideouts and tracing cryptocurrency payments to accounts allegedly used by the cartels. As reported by data from private crypto-tracking analytics firm Elliptic.
Over the past year, the Biden administration has announced multiple initiatives involving law enforcement, intelligence gathering, and anti-money laundering capabilities across the federal bureaucracy to track and intercept fentanyl proceeds.
But now Warren and Cassidy want to know what progress these initiatives are making, any obstacles the administration faces and what Congress can do to help. The senators expressed their “continued concerns” about how cryptocurrency helps fuel the deadly fentanyl trade.
“What legal limitations do you currently face? Do you have any specific recommendations for Congress to address this issue? the lawmakers wrote in a letter addressed to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and Rahul Gupta, head of the White House Office of National Drug Enforcement Policy.
CNN has requested comment from the White House and the DEA on the letter.
Fentanyl continues to be an extremely sensitive diplomatic issue in the United States’ relations with Mexico and China. According to the DEA, most fentanyl entering the United States comes from ingredients made in China that are then pressed into pills — or packaged into a powder — and smuggled from Mexico by drug cartels.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen led a delegation to Beijing last month where she touted a new “working group” through which U.S. and Chinese officials can discuss money laundering concerns, including those related to fentanyl.
William Kimbell, the DEA’s chief of operations, said at a Senate hearing last month that his agency needed more cooperation from Chinese counterparts.
“We would like to see greater cooperation from the Chinese, who share intelligence information with us when they identify people in their country who violate money laundering laws… so that we can get a broader picture of the events that are taking place happening.” ” Kimbell said.