WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Co-chairman of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control and a member of the Judiciary Committee, today praised House passage of their bill to help combat transnational drug trafficking. The move clears the bill for the President’s consideration.
“Since drug cartels are continually evolving, this legislation ensures that our criminal laws keep pace,” Grassley said. “The bill closes a loophole abused by drug traffickers who intend for drugs to end up in the United States but supply them through an intermediary. The Justice Department needs every legal tool to help crack down on those who ship these substances over the border into our country. I hope the President will sign this bill into law as soon as possible.”
“I applaud the House for passing this vital legislation and am looking forward to the President signing it into law,” Feinstein said. “This bill passed the Senate unanimously because we recognize that drug traffickers and criminal organizations are constantly finding new ways to circumvent existing laws. This legislation provides the federal government with the tools it needs to prosecute criminals who bring dangerous, often deadly drugs into the United States.”
Grassley and Feinstein introduced the Transnational Drug Trafficking Act last year. The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in the 112th and 113th Congresses, would provide the Department of Justice with new tools to prosecute international drug traffickers in foreign countries. In particular, it would help the department build extradition cases on drug kingpins from the Andean region, which includes Colombia and Peru. Kingpins from these countries often use Mexican drug trafficking organizations as intermediaries to ship illegal narcotics to the United States.
The bill also would help the Department of Justice combat the international trafficking of methamphetamine, which is increasingly being trafficked from Mexico into the United States. Grassley held a Judiciary Committee field hearing on the meth problem in Iowa. He urged the House to take up the bill in a recent op-ed.
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