WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on Wednesday at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) hearing on countering illicit fentanyl trafficking with Anne Milgram, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Todd Robinson, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Murphy highlighted Mexico’s insufficient efforts to tackle the cartels’ role in drug trafficking: “I understand that our witnesses have to be diplomatic in the way that they talk about Mexico. But let's be honest, at best, Mexico is not taking this crisis seriously enough, and at worst, the Mexican government or at least significant parts of it, are either looking the other way or complicit with cartels. That's just the truth.”

In a question to DEA Administrator Milgram, Murphy asked: “What is our level of integration with Mexican authorities to unwind the corruption that exists at the ports, and is that a logical place for us to try to target our resources given that that's where most of the precursor is showing up and being transferred to the cartels?”

On China’s claim that U.S. sanctions have hindered cooperation on combatting fentanyl, Murphy asked: “In a meeting I had with the now Chinese Foreign Minister—I'll ask this to Secretary Robinson, but hopefully you're the right person to answer this—they made a claim that our coordination has been limited by a set of sanctions that the Commerce Department applied in 2020 against China's Institute for Forensic Science at the Ministry of Public Security and their national narcotics laboratory. Now these were sanctions connected to human rights violations authorized by Congress. Is there any validity that these sanctions have impacted our ability to work with the Chinese government? The claim is that if we were to lift those particular sanctions that we would open up new avenues of cooperation on this question of precursor export into Mexico.”

Last week, Murphy spoke at a SFRC hearing to evaluate U.S.-China policy where he discussed how to stem the flow of fentanyl into the country with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. Murphy traveled last year with U.S. Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.-04) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.-01) to Mexico to discuss the flow of fentanyl into the United States among other priorities in the bilateral relationship. Last month, he traveled to the Southwest border as part of a bipartisan delegation.

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Milgram and Robinson:

MURPHY: “Thank you Mr. Chairman. Just to add to the bipartisan consensus on this panel, I understand that our witnesses have to be diplomatic in the way that they talk about Mexico. But let's be honest, at best, Mexico is not taking this crisis seriously enough, and at worst the Mexican government, or at least significant parts of it, are either looking the other way or complicit with cartels. That's just the truth.

“To answer Senator Menendez’s question from before, it is actually true that the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the United States at the southern border is coming through the ports. As the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that funds our border operations, that's why we're putting increased amounts of resources to catch it there, and I don't necessarily know that the DEA should defer to DHS on that question. It's obviously your job to know where and how the drugs are coming across the border. But it is also true that the ports in Mexico are a big problem as well, and I just don't think it's realistic that we're going to defeat the Mexican drug cartels in the next five years. Maybe you think differently.

“But concentrating efforts on those ports, on the Mexican ports, which are often controlled by those cartels, I think is an interesting place to start.  And so, Administrator, look, I want to ask you that question. What is our level of integration with Mexican authorities to unwind the corruption that exists at the ports, and is that a logical place for us to try to target our resources given that that's where most of the precursor is showing up and being transferred to the cartels?”

MILGRAM: “Senator, thank you. Thank you for that question. If I could, let me start by talking a little bit about corruption generally. What we see is that corruption is part of narcotics trafficking worldwide, and there are many examples that we could give. DEA was the lead investigative agency on the current case which we just spoke about, the Garcia Luna case. We also did the investigation that led to the charges against the current Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro.

MURPHY: “Talk about the ports just because I’m going to run out of time.”

MILGRAM: “Yep, so let me say two things. The first is that you are correct in saying that the vast majority of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine are coming in at the Mexican ports. I would see it differently on the fentanyl precursors. We see many of those also coming into the airports.

MURPHY: “Yep, I guess mean land and sea ports.”

MILGRAM: “What’s happening, and I would just sort of describe this a little bit is that the precursor chemicals necessary for methamphetamine are enormously big. The precursor chemicals necessary for fentanyl are much smaller. And again, we know that tiny amounts, the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil are potentially deadly for fentanyl, and the precursors needed to make that amount are far smaller. So are we focused on the ports and the airports and also overland conveyances through Latin America? Yes, Senator, we are.”

MURPHY: “Let me let me just turn to another topic because I want to get at least one more in. In a meeting I had with the now Chinese Foreign Minister—I'll ask this to Secretary Robinson, but hopefully you're the right person to answer this—they made a claim that our coordination has been limited by a set of sanctions that the Commerce Department applied in 2020 against China's Institute for Forensic Science at the Ministry of Public Security and their national narcotics laboratory. Now these were sanctions connected to human rights violations authorized by Congress. Is there any validity that these sanctions have impacted our ability to work with the Chinese government? The claim is that if we were to lift those particular sanctions that we would open up new avenues of cooperation on this question of precursor export into Mexico.”

ROBINSON: “Thank you senator for that question. The short answer is no. The facility that they're talking about is a large facility. One part of that facility was sanctioned by the Commerce Department, but the larger, the narcotics bureau or laboratory was not. The PRC has been using this as an excuse not to engage with us on this issue.”

MURPHY: “And then maybe I'll submit this question for the record. But I also think it's important to understand that the circular trade that happens at the Mexican border with these cartels, it's American guns going south, and it's Chinese and Mexican drugs coming north. I congratulate this congress…

ROBINSON: “And money.”

MURPHY: “And money. And money, right. Going both ways. I congratulate this Congress because in the last budget for the first time we put $50 million specifically towards the work of interrupting the gun trade, the firearms trade going south, and I would encourage us to understand that the sort of full circle of this trade.

“That much of this is what's coming to us, but we are fueling the cartels’ ability to run this trade by allowing these guns to be bought in the United States through background checks exceptions and sent down to Mexico. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

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