Hearing of the Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - "Narcoterrorism and the Long Reach of U.S. Law Enforcement"

Statement

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, made the following statement during today's hearing entitled, "Narcoterrorism and the Long Reach of U.S. Law Enforcement":

Our hearing comes as a narcoterrorism-related case has exploded in the public eye. Yesterday, the Justice Department detailed an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate a foreign ambassador on U.S. soil. From what we know, a key conspirator in the plot approached a Drug Enforcement Administration informant seeking to hire a drug cartel hit squad to carry out the attack in Washington, D.C. The plot was planned over multiple meetings in Mexico between the man now in U.S. custody and people he believed to be cartel members.

That Iran's Qods Force conceived of a plot to recruit Mexican narco-traffickers in an assassination plot on U.S. soil should be no surprise. Clearly, this deadly force felt comfortable navigating the expansive criminal networks south of our border. For years, some derided border security advocates as alarmists. Well, this plot proves just how important a secure border is to our national security.

Also yesterday, the trial of international arms dealer Viktor Bout began in New York. Bout was brought down by DEA agents in May 2008 for conspiring to supply weapons to the FARC, a designated terrorist group. This "shadow facilitator" was notorious for supplying arms to dictators and terrorists. After I pushed hard for Bout's extradition from Thailand, the "Merchant of Death" is finally getting his day in court. Michael Braun, who quarterbacked this operation for the DEA, appears before the Subcommittee today.

These cases illustrate two things: 1) the nexus between drugs and terrorism, and 2) the long arm of U.S. law enforcement.

Unquestionably, the links between drugs and terrorism are growing. Last year, the DEA tallied 18 of the 44 State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations as having firm links to the drug trade. This includes the FARC, Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaeda.

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department designated Lebanese Canadian Bank as a "primary money laundering concern" -- finding that as much as $200 million per month in drug money was laundered through the bank to fund Hezbollah. Meanwhile ties between Hezbollah and Mexican drug cartels have strengthened. This makes sense: drug cartels get Hezbollah's smuggling and explosive expertise, and Hezbollah gets a presence on the lawless Mexican border.

As Doug Farah will testify, the ties between transnational criminal networks and terrorist organizations are "morphing into something new." Looking forward, attacking these links will be critical to countering terrorist plots. As the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York recently remarked, the "long arm of the law has to get even longer."

With a unique set of authorities, human sources, and experience, the DEA has been bringing a "cutting edge" approach to attack the narcotics/terrorism nexus abroad. But as we will hear today, despite its robust international posture, the DEA's presence in Africa is spread thin, among other challenges it faces.

The Subcommittee looks forward to hearing from the DEA in the near future.

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