Fentanyl And Cartel Drug Trafficking: Treasury Official Heads To Mexican Border To Meet Officials

Brian Nelson, Treasury’s sanctions official, will travel to the southern border with Mexico on Tuesday as part of the department's ongoing effort to crack down on the deadly fentanyl trade.

Nelson and Treasury officials will meet with law enforcement representatives, private financial institutions and local officials to discuss how Treasury's tools and info can be used to disrupt the supply chain of fentanyl.

In Laredo, TX., Nelson will receive briefings on border operations from Customs and Border Protection officials and discuss cargo processing and inspections, reported CNN. 

In San Antonio, Nelson will host a "FinCEN Exchange," which is a public-private information sharing forum with financial institutions, to discuss ways to better spot red flags and identify illicit financial networks.

DEA Calls Mexican Drug Cartels Producing Fentanyl Greatest Threat Ever To U.S.

“The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels pose the greatest criminal drug threat the United States has ever faced,” said special agent Jon DeLena earlier this year. “These ruthless, violent and criminal organizations have associates, facilitators and brokers in all 50 states as well as in more than 40 countries around the world.”

Nelson said his team will combine Treasury's tools with the efforts other U.S. government agencies and allied governments are deploying. "These tools, combined with financial mapping that our FinCEN team does, is very, very powerful insight." 

He added that Treasury is "absolutely" looking to build on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent meetings in China, which included discussing where the two nations could cooperate on curbing the flow of Fentanyl precursor chemicals from China.

The Biden administration has been taking a number of steps to crack down on the fentanyl trade, including issuing sanctions against precursor chemical supply networks and other corrupt activity that helps support the trade.

Leading Cause Of Drug Overdose Deaths In U.S.

In 2021, there were over 70,600 drug overdose deaths in the US, and fentanyl was involved in over 67,300 of those deaths. This represents a 26% increase in fentanyl-related deaths from 2020.

Photo: Arizona police photo of Fentanyl bust