US SENATE HEARING: "Preventing Drug Trafficking Through International Mail"

On April 19th, 2016, while we all tripped on hefty doses of LSD to commemorate Bicycle Day, the US Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a "roundtable" hearing on international drug trafficking through the mail entitled, Preventing Drug Trafficking Through International Mail.

The committee met to discuss preventing drug trafficking through international mail and received testimony from:

It is interesting that the DEA's Special Operations Division bigwig was there. SOD is the division of the DEA that gets intel directly from the NSA and helps to build cases off that data via parallel construction. I didn't see the hearing, but I'd guess Mark Hamlet was there to talk about SOD's work with CBP & HSI to identify and interdict illegal drug and illegal drug analog packages from China entering the USA. Just a guess based on the opening statements below.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a roundtable Tuesday titled: 'Preventing Drug Trafficking Through International Mail.' Below is Chairman Johnson's opening statement as submitted for the record:

Good morning and welcome. The purpose of today's roundtable is to examine the problem of synthetic drugs entering our country through international mail, and steps that can be taken to strengthen customs screening procedures.

Our committee has done extensive work examining the lack of border security, and also to understand the nation's drug crisis, including two hearings last week. Today, we will look at another source of this crisis-drugs entering through our ports of entry that are shipped directly to customers by international shippers, including the U.S. Postal Service.

First, we will look at the problem of synthetic drugs and how they are contributing to our nation's drug crisis. Synthetic drugs are created with manmade chemicals to mimic the effects of other illicit drugs. The large majority of these chemicals are made in Chinese labs before being sent into the United States in bulk quantities for final assembly into individual dosages. The chemicals are cheap to manufacture and can be ordered online, resulting in a huge return on investment for drug dealers. Less than $5,000 of raw ingredients can earn $250,000 or more on the street in the United States.

These drugs present a growing risk to public health and safety. Last year, poison control centers recorded a record number of calls related to synthetic marijuana, more than double the number of calls from the previous year. Fentanyl, a painkiller 25 to 40 times stronger than heroin, is being produced by these same Chinese labs and imported into the United States to be cut with heroin or to be sold on the streets as other narcotics. It is causing overdoses around the country. In my home state of Wisconsin, fentanyl has killed 30 people since December in Milwaukee County alone.

Second, we will examine the international shipping and screening process to understand how the mail and international shipping is being used by drug traffickers. Once drugs are purchased online, they are mailed through foreign postal systems, delivered within the United States by the U.S. Postal Service, or shipped into the country through a private carrier, like UPS, FedEx or DHL. While private carriers know their customers and are able to work with federal agencies to prevent drugs from reaching their destinations, the U.S. Postal Service is compelled by treaties on international mail exchange to deliver mail on behalf of foreign posts. Because they cannot control which individuals use these international services, the Postal Service can become an unwitting drug courier.

Third, I ask that we continue to work together to identify what can be done to solve this problem and to help prevent these dangerous drugs from getting into our country. Today's roundtable follows oversight letters that Ranking Member Carper and I sent to federal agencies last month on improving the security and screening of mail coming into the United States. I have asked today's participants to join the committee in a discussion of how we can all work together to improve mail screening and give ourselves the best tools to keep these dangerous drugs off the street.

Thank you for joining us today. I look forward to our discussion.

A video of the hearing was aired on C-SPAN and can be viewed here:

Full Committee Hearing : ROUNDTABLE - Preventing Drug Trafficking Through International Mail

Hearings to examine preventing drug trafficking through international mail.

Of course I didn't watch the hearing video due to blocked IP addresses. Anyone want to take a look and tell us what exactly they said?

Here's what George Landrith of TheHill.com wrote in reference to the hearing:

Our nation's drug problem is also a postal service problem

May 06, 2016, 04:00 pm

With each passing day, news coverage is filled with reports about the unfortunate toll that many forms of drug abuse are having on our communities. The recent rise of the heroin epidemic is just the latest in a long string of vicious cycles of drug abuse claiming thousands of lives each and every year.

To aid the efforts made to halt the in-flow, transport and ultimately the use of such drugs, the Senate Government Oversight and Homeland Security Committee convened last week for a roundtable discussion titled, "Preventing Drug Trafficking through International Mail."

Along with many pertinent questions posed by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Heidi Heitkemp (D-ND), asked directly about the nature of the collaboration among our federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service.

"How do we improve that relationship? How do we staff these Postal inspectors with drug dogs with whatever we can to make sure that the Postal Office is not the delivery device for poison that basically resulted in deaths in my state and deaths in others states?," she questioned.

Recent studies have also looked into this problem. An analysis by Lexington Institute highlighted how a large amount of synthetic drugs produced in China, are being shipped through its postal service, and then handed off to the US Postal Service for delivery inside the US. This continues to happen unbeknownst to the USPS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and a number of other federal agencies who have responsibilities to curtail the flow of drug-laden packages.

LegitScript, a group that works to make the internet pharmacy and health product sector safer and more transparent, found in a recent study that the USPS is the "carrier of choice for illegal online pharmacies." Out of 29 test purchases from illegal online pharmacies, all 29 packages reached their intended destinations through the USPS. Not one package was detected and flagged by the Postal Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, or any other agency responsible.

To help prevent this from happening, private express carriers submit advance electronic security data through the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) system. 47 US agencies, including CBP, depend on this data to perform a variety of enforcement duties; however the US Postal Service does not have this same obligation.

If it is so easy to transport illegal drugs into the United States, could we also be in danger of having weapons, anthrax, or dirty bombs moving through the mail with similar ease? In light of the recent findings and what we know about the system, this is a significant security concern.

As can be expected, this week's roundtable discussion did not produce any clear solutions. A few of the shortcomings were pinned on the reality that the USPS relies on paper tracking of documents produced in myriad forms by foreign postal services instead of consistent electronic data sets. As well, CBP is 2,000 officers short of full enforcement capacity, and mail volume continues to grow.

While the USPS faces these inadequacies, private express shippers are required to know what products they are carrying and have a near universal rate of compliance. According to the Coalition of Services Industries, private express shippers' ability to submit specified data translated to a 98% success rate of shipments that were properly declared with Customs and Border Protection. Conversely, the USPS collected $0, which is estimated to be a $1.06 billion loss of public income for the US Treasury.

These oversights are inexcusable.

The US Postal Service often gloats about how they do not depend on the federal government for funding. With an $18 billion dependence on the federal government for subsidies through below market interest rates, a $15 billion credit line with the US Treasury, exemptions from state, local property, and real estate taxes, and a monopoly on mailbox use, this claim has little foundation in truth. The USPS should be held to a higher standard than their private shipping competitors, at a minimum.

Today, there are many conversations about what fixing the US Postal Service looks like. Undoubtedly, the future of the agency ought to include a serious effort to root out the presence of drugs and other hazardous materials in our mail system.


Comments


[29 Points] None:

Slippery slope! If drugs can be smuggled, then so could an atomic bomb!

This is why I'm banking on as much drugs as I can... We are on the golden age of the spooky net and the powers that be will do anything in their power to crack it down.


[8 Points] CynicalElephant:

Whenever I read stuff like this, I realize just how much we're hated. Often times, I think the government doesn't really care that much about us because there's not much they can do if we do our OPSEC job to the best of our ability.

But when they have these speeches, I realize just how much we're hated by the government and international citizens. And for what, man? This stuff really saddens me.


[7 Points] Trappy_Pandora:

dear america

Please remove cheap canadian weed, it is hurting the domestic black market.


[5 Points] TelJanin_Aellinsar:

Incredibly interesting! Seems like it's less about drugs themselves and more about private carriers having their panties in a twist


[6 Points] None:

tldr?


[3 Points] just333randomname:

As a regular c-span watcher, usually non-Issa/Gowdy hearings can be real sleepers but this was actually decent. Three of the Senators displayed a mesmerizing level of incompetence for basic chemistry, legal issues of controlled deliveries, the fact that there are different drug supply chains for different criminal organizations... they seemed pretty lost on simple concepts.

I thought the top DEA guy, Mark Hamlet, was going to be a total stickler when he had a hard time reading that pre-written opening statement but actually had some interesting things to say. Maybe just opening statement jitters. But then as it got 3/4th's into the hearing he was hardly responding, so it got boring again. Also the people being asked whether or not more drug dogs would help gave a universal shoulder-shrug, but they never really said exactly why. Just a "there's only so much a drug dog can do" type of response. Made me wonder if they are not effective, or too much money or what.

Also, I swear to god, besides the suave mother fucker in the front row, like half of the people in the audiences look like they are in drag.


[2 Points] ag0risthooawayyfoe:

TLDR


[2 Points] fantasticnameuser:

Jon Tester (D-MT),

(D-MT)

I couldn't help but to notice.


[1 Points] dankreviewz:

video on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/165698870


[1 Points] UDGHT:

!remindme 1week


[1 Points] crystaldust:

seems like sen. johnson is leading the roundtable because one of his relatives died from an overdose of fentanyl a few months ago.


[1 Points] None:

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.


[1 Points] Udaypbuh:

Stay domestic


[1 Points] madisonrebel:

Buy local.


[1 Points] TreyWait:

That's fine, I only buy domestic.


[1 Points] NietzscheCP:

😒