FBI Director Christopher Wray lamented the “uneven” support Mexico gives U.S. law enforcement to prevent dangerous cartels and deadly drugs from entering the country.
Testifying before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday, Wray said the United States needs “much more” aid from south of the border and called for more cooperation on a range of issues.
“I would say it’s very uneven. There have been some instances where we’ve made significant arrests and extradition…We’re starting to work with vetted teams there,” Ray said. “But we need more than what we are getting from the Mexican government.”
Wray said the agency needs Mexico to start cracking down on cartels, shut down labs that make the drug and eradicate precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Wray claimed that the agency had seized enough fentanyl substance to “kill 207 million Americans” in “the last two years in a row.”
He also stressed that China needs to do more to stop the spread of fentanyl precursor chemicals.
The FBI director called for additional intelligence sharing from both governments at a “large scale, consistent and sustained level” to expedite law enforcement efforts.
Fentanyl has quickly emerged as a hot issue ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election after overdose deaths from the drug affected families and neighbors across the country.
It is a synthetic opioid estimated to be 50 times more potent than heroin. In some cases, drugs may be contaminated with low levels of the drug without the user’s knowledge.
In 2022, the most recent full year for which data is available, more than 76,000 Americans died from ingesting synthetic opioids, a record high. CDC estimates.
Complete monthly death figures for 2023 and 2024 are not yet available, but the Federal Health Agency predicts new historical records will be set in the mid-months of 2023.
More than 72,000 Americans died from fentanyl and related compounds in 2021, Biden’s first year in office, compared to about 58,000 in 2020 and about 30,000 in 2019, according to CDC data. 7,000 people, a dramatic increase from about 32,000 people in 2018.
The director explained that once fentanyl substances enter the United States, they are often spread by “neighborhood gangs,” including “all over the country, not just border states.”
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Ray.
When asked by Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) about cooperation among law enforcement agencies within the United States, particularly in efforts to combat drug trafficking, Ray said: He became even more optimistic.
“I think one of the really bright spots, especially compared to earlier in my career, is how close the partnerships are at all levels of law enforcement,” he said.
“The partnership is in many ways stronger than ever before, and that’s one of the factors that keeps us from falling into deeper trouble.”
Wray’s appearance before the appropriations subcommittee was to pitch the appropriations subcommittee on its budget request for fiscal year 2025.
The FBI is seeking $11.3 billion next fiscal year for “national security, intelligence, criminal law enforcement, and criminal justice services missions,” Wray said.
During his testimony, Wray implored lawmakers to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before it expires on April 19.
House Republicans’ efforts to pass rules updating controversial warrantless surveillance powers failed Wednesday, forcing leadership to reconsider its plans.
Wray recalled that the agency conducted an investigation last year under its authority to investigate an individual it described as a “foreign foreign terrorist” who had contact with someone in the United States.
“That’s when I realized, oh, wait a minute, there’s something alive here. This is serious,” he said. “We were able to arrest the person who by that time was in possession of weapons and bomb-making equipment, surrounding targets and everything else.”
“Even if we had to get a warrant for the initial interrogation, there’s not a judge on earth who would give us a warrant based on the information we had at the time.”
Steven Nelson contributed to this report.
