News/Commentary

Matt Gaetz’s provocative idea on how to handle Mexican drug cartels gets surprising reaction

September 22, 2022 | | Print Article

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted on Wednesday that the U.S. government should bomb the cartels responsible for fentanyl being trafficked into the U.S.

“Bomb Sinaloa. Not kidding,” he tweeted.

What’s amazing is that the tweet wasn’t ratioed. Almost every Gaetz tweet is ratioed by an army of leftists who hate him for no apparent reason. But not this time.

Look:

Note that Sinaloa is one of two cartels that dominate the fentanyl market.

“[T]he Sinaloa and rival Jalisco cartels dominate the market for supplying fentanyl to the U.S. They cornered the market after China cracked down on fentanyl production several years ago and are now churning out bootleg versions of the highly potent synthetic opioid that, in its legal form, is used under prescription to treat severe pain,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Regardless, attached to Gaetz’s tweet was a video of him speaking to the House Judiciary Committee earlier that morning about America’s fentanyl crisis.

“There has been discussion today of fentanyl, and it irks me every time I hear someone talk about fentanyl overdoses. Because no one overdoses on fentanyl. Because I don’t think anybody really sets out to score some fentanyl for a good time,” he said.

His point was that most fentanyl deaths are accidental.

“I get why it’s hard to keep cocaine from coming into the country. People in the United States like using cocaine. They seek it out. They pay high-dollar amounts for it, so that would be something hard to stop. But since people don’t set out to use fentanyl, since it’s something we don’t want in our country, we should be totally capable of stopping it,” Gaetz continued.

“And the only reason we aren’t is because we purposefully allow our border to degrade. Not by accident. Not because of some lack of capability or some unsolvable problem set. But because there’s some groups on the right and left who think they’ll do better economically if we just let millions of people into the country and just depress the wages of Americans.”

He concluded, “And the costs they’re willing to pay for that are the funerals and the deaths and the broken lives as a result of fentanyl poisoning. Because it is not an overdose. It’s a poisoning that happens.”

The most recent high-profile case demonstrating this phenomenon is that of country singer Luke Bell. In a report released this Monday, the Pima County, Arizona Medical Examiner’s Office said he died last month of accidental fentanyl poisoning.

“[I]n consideration of the known circumstances surrounding this death, the available medical history, and the examination of the remains, the cause of death is ascribed to fentanyl intoxication. The manner of death is accident,” the report reportedly read.

Bell, 32, was found deceased “in a shaded area of a parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, on Aug. 26,” according to NBC News.

In response to this crisis, Sens. Roger Marshall and Rick Scott, both Republicans, released a bill Wednesday, the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act, that would “formally designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

At the moment, states are stuck with making the designation themselves:

“The illicit drugs and other deadly activities being carried out by cartels are killing Americans at record rates. Since Joe Biden and the Democrats continue to turn a blind eye, we are going to do something about it by designating the drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” Marshall said in a statement.

“As these cartels continue to invade our porous southern border in an increasingly militarized approach, this designation is needed to ramp up our efforts to combat them. We will not rest in our fight to stop fentanyl’s terrible scourge wreaking havoc in Kansas and across the U.S.”

“Fentanyl is a leading cause of death among young people in the United States—and those who knowingly distribute the highly lethal drug are declaring war on Americans. For far too long, people have suffered addiction and death because of this evil drug that is pouring across Joe Biden’s open southern border; and to put an end to this crisis, these cartels must be held accountable and classified as terrorists. I am proud to join Senator Marshall in standing up against this crisis and urge this commonsense legislation pass the Senate immediately,” Scott added.

Similarly, earlier this month Sens. Bill Cassidy, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Bill Hagerty, Roger Wicker, and Scott released a separate bill, the Felony Murder for Deadly Fentanyl Distribution Act, that “would add the distribution of fentanyl, resulting in death, to the list of crimes that are eligible to be charged as felony murder.”

“Criminals poisoning Americans with fentanyl should be treated the same as someone pulling the trigger of a gun. If drug dealers and cartels push this deadly substance, they will face justice,” Cassidy said in a statement.

Vivek Saxena
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