The U.S. Treasury Department has announced the launch of a new Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force to combat the trafficking of illicit fentanyl into the country.
The new initiative brings together "personnel, expertise, intelligence, and resources across key Treasury offices and is jointly led by the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) and IRS Criminal Investigation (CI)," the Treasury Department said Monday.
"Combatting the flow of deadly fentanyl into communities across the United States is a top priority for President Biden as well as the Treasury Department," said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. "The Treasury Department’s Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force will allow us to bring the Department’s unrivaled expertise in fighting financial crime to bear against this deadly epidemic. Treasury will use every tool at its disposal to disrupt the ability of drug traffickers to peddle this poison in our country."
On Tuesday, Yellen will promote her agency's new strike force during a visit to Mexico City, where she will talk with government and private sector leaders about stopping illicit fentanyl financing that funds the drug trade and boosts supply chains.
Among other things, the Treasury task force will analyze the financial flows of trafficking organizations, especially those that rely on cryptocurrency to move funds, work with local law enforcement in areas hardest hit by the fentanyl epidemic and use financial institution records to detect transactions related to drug and human smuggling.
It will be chaired by Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson and Chief James Lee of CI, the Treasury Department said. Nelson said the strike force "will act quickly and decisively with the top specialists from across the department to nimbly respond to the newest threats."
The creation of the Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force and Yellen's Mexico trip represent the Biden administration's new focus on eliminating illegal fentanyl.
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The heightened attention comes after President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping's November meeting in California where they announced that China is telling its chemical companies to curtail shipments of the materials used to produce fentanyl to Latin America.
China has also resumed sharing information about suspected trafficking with an international database.
Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances directly trafficked into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Nearly all the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl come from China and illicit operations in Mexico traffic the deadly drug through the southern border and into the U.S.
Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 71,000 people died from overdosing on synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in 2021, up from almost 58,000 in 2020.
The actions come ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and many of the GOP presidential candidates have said they would use military force against Mexico in response to the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
