The Drug Enforcement Agency's "Operation Overdrive," is one way to put pressure and leverage on China to keep ingredients used in fentanyl from coming into Mexico, but further controls are needed to stop the illegal flow of the deadly drug into the United States, Rep. Brett Guthrie said Wednesday on Newsmax.
"It's going to come from other places," the Kentucky Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "We have to get control on the illegal flow at the border. Seventy percent of the overdose deaths in Kentucky in 2020 were from illicit fentanyl, and so Kentucky's a border state. Every state is a border state; every community is a border community if we stop the flow."
The DEA's initiative launched Monday in 34 cities and 23 states and promises to use an intelligence-led approach while identifying and dismantling criminal drug networks that operate in areas with the highest rates of violence and overdoses, according to an agency press release.
But Guthrie told Newsmax that it's important for members of Congress and the Biden administration to visit the border and hear what the situation is firsthand rather than getting "some whitewashed presentation."
He said when he visited the El Paso sector, Border Patrol agents told him that building the border wall and the Remain In Mexico policy had not only slowed the flow of illegal immigrants, but also the flow of illicit fentanyl.
Meanwhile, Guthrie said it's vital to pass the Stop Fentanyl Act, and it's "unconscionable" that Democrats won't pursue it.
"They say it's because if you schedule fentanyl on the FDA charts, then that means you're kicking the mandatory minimums," said Guthrie.
However, Democrats are saying they don't want to put people in jail, so "we're going to allow illicit fentanyl to come across our border, and it's affecting our communities," said Guthrie.
The added imports of crystal meth are also a growing problem, the congressman said.
Guthrie added that he spoke with a sheriff in his state recently who said he could tell that more of the drug is coming into the country because of how the prices are coming down when undercover drug buys are made.
"The only benefit we have is that we don't have meth labs in Kentucky anymore because the criminals in Kentucky can't compete with the cartels coming from Mexico," said Guthrie. "That just shows how open our border is. Remember these are destructive drugs. These are people that are either getting overdosed or their lives are being completely destroyed by these addictive drugs."
The fentanyl legislation, he added, will make "anything derived from fentanyl" illegal.
"The administration says, well, let's just do one at a time as one appears," said Guthrie. "What happens is every time they create new illicit fentanyl, It seemed to be 4 to 5 times more powerful, more deadly. What we want to say is all illicit fentanyl."
But instead, the administration is "trying to bend over to help secure the far left that doesn't want people in prison," said Guthrie.
"I don't want people to go to prison, but if they're selling illicit fentanyl, they belong in prison," he concluded.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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