AG Knudsen Calls on Drug Cartels as Foreign Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and a coalition of 21 state attorneys general called on President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) under federal law. The FTO designation will make additional federal resources available to confront the fentanyl crisis head-on and save American lives. Fentanyl has driven a meteoric increase in drug overdoses, which now kill more than 100,000 Americans per year. Over a 10-day period earlier this month, at least 28 Montanans overdosed on drugs suspected to be fentanyl, killing eight. Attorney General Knudsen and the coalition are demanding the FTOdesignation for drug cartels because of the massive death they are causing and the severe threat they pose to the nation and to the states. “We know that Mexican cartels are producing illicit and deadly fentanyl in Mexico then trafficking it across the nation’s southern border and up to Montana where they can make top dollar for their product. One hundred percent of the illicit fentanyl in Montana is coming from the cartels — and it’s killing Montanans,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “I will continue to do everything in my power as attorney general to combat the fentanyl problem, but until President Biden secures the southern border, we can’t solve the problem.” Not only are cartels smuggling poison into the United States, they are also assassinating rivals and government officials, ambushing and killing Americans at the border, and engaging in an armed insurgency against the Mexican Government. Designating major cartels as FTOs will give state and federal law enforcement agencies increased authority to freeze cartel assets, deny entry to cartel members, and allow prosecutors to pursue stricter punishments against those who provide them material support. “The national security threats posed by this ongoing campaign of violence are particularly acute. Clashes between gunmen from rival cartels claimed the lives of nine U.S. citizens just across the U.S. border on Nov. 4, 2019. The cartels’ intense violence goes far beyond mere resistance to interference with their drug trafficking and now encompasses a general effort to intimidate rivals and expand their influence. This violence, which necessarily involves using firearms and explosives to kill security forces, plainly constitutes terrorist activity,” the Attorney General wrote. Traditional counter-narcotics efforts are allowing cartels to get away with their criminal behavior because of narrow laws that don’t address the current threat they pose. For example, the drug cartels have diversified their operations beyond mere narcotics 24 Montana Funeral Directors Association
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