Ducey Lays Out Cartel Threats To Homeland Security Committee

On Monday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey testified before a special field hearing of the Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs Committee, Chaired by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.

The “America’s Heroin Epidemic at the Border: Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement Efforts to Combat Illicit Narcotic Trafficking” hearing featured two panels of testimony from Ducey, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels, Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Executive Director Dawn Mertz, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, and The Salvation Army’s Public Advisory Board/Public Policy Member Jeff Taylor.

Ducey told the Committee that “Arizona is the front door,” for the Heroin trade. “It’s not news to any of us that Arizona has been, and continues to be, a major smuggling corridor and distribution hub for illicit drugs being supplied to the United States.”

Ducey said the Sinaloa Cartel, a transnational drug trafficking organization, has a stronghold in the region. “Unless we act – and act soon – these cartels, and the poison they’re bringing to our communities, aren’t going anywhere,” testified Ducey.

Ducey told the Committe that from 2010-2014, heroin seizures increased 223% in Arizona. He advised the Committee that “arrests for heroin alone increased 76 percent over the past two years – which constitutes the largest rate of heroin arrests in a decade.”

Ducey said the issue should matter to everyone because “the impact of heroin reaches far beyond user and supplier.” He noted that it is “having a cumulative effect on the standard of living in Arizona and throughout the country:

•More than 75 percent of inmates in Arizona’s prison system have a substance abuse problem.

•There are more than 17,000 children who are wards of the state, because their parents are unfit to raise them. If we found them all homes tomorrow in foster care, there would be thousands more waiting right behind them … unless we address the corrosive nature of drug addiction.

•Babies – newborns – exposed to substances rose from 597 cases in 2008, to 1,248 in 2014. That’s a 109 percent increase in just six years.”

He called the situation a “terrible, preventable tragedy.”

He stated that he was “aggressively targeting the supply,” by the creation of the Arizona Border Strike Force Bureau.

Ducey acknowledged Kerlikowske and Dannels “for their willingness to partner with the State of Arizona through the Border Strike Force Bureau.”

The Governor called for a “robust” plan that “leverages resources, manpower and money from local, state and federal levels.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time meeting with ranchers, families, law enforcement and residents near the border – as I know you all have, too,” testified Ducey. “The greatest concerns among all of them are the cartels and the traffickers. In the place where they live, work, and raise their families – border-related crime is a frequent occurrence. If there were ever a time to get serious about protecting our homeland, it’s now.”

Ducey said he would be “remiss” if he “didn’t mention another potential threat to our country as a result of Arizona’s border.” He stated, “In light of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris … new threats on the United States from ISIS in a video released last week … and recent apprehensions of Middle Eastern Nationals near the southern border … one thing’s for sure: it’s time to step up our game.”

Ducey concluded, “I ask you, as federal representatives of the people, to deliver Arizona’s message to Congress: If you are serious about taking the fight to the drug cartels – and turning the tide on the drug epidemic ravaging our nation – join us. Arizona is on the front line. And we need your support.”

Sheriff Dannels told the Committee, “The opportunity to address this group instills fresh hope that our voice does matter and on behalf of the citizens of Cochise County, Arizona and beyond, we hope you won’t forget us and will do your Constitutional mandate to bring positive change to an over-due vulnerable situation.”

Dannels reported that unlike other border counties in Arizona, “Cochise County is unique in that there are two cities in the Republic of Mexico situated on the international border within the county. The cities of Agua Prieta and Naco, with an estimated population of 80,000 and 10,000 respectively, are well know to U.S. Law Enforcement officials as staging and operational centers for one of Mexico’s largest and most notorious drug cartels.”

Dannels told the Committee that violence against innocent citizens, public officials, law enforcement, and rival drug/human trafficking groups in Mexico continues to escalate. Cochise County’s law enforcement and private citizen fears of it spilling into the county were realized in 2010 when a longtime Cochise County resident rancher was senselessly murdered while inspecting fences on his ranch. Further complicating the concerns is the potential for foreign terrorist to employ drug/human trafficking organizations to smuggle individuals and or weapons of mass destruction into the United States through Cochise County.

He stated that the adverse affects of the drug and human trafficking organizations operating in Cochise County not only have significantly diminished the quality of life of county residents, but also placed unbearable strain upon the budgets and resources of private and government agencies in the county.

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