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DEA, HSI and FBI tell Senate cartels operate like paramilitary groups; urge whole-of-government task forces
Summary
Top federal agents told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Mexican drug cartels have entrenched logistics, personnel and finances in the United States and abroad, urging continued interagency task forces and sustained resources to disrupt leadership, trafficking and money flows.
Chairman Grassley convened a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles field division, Jason Stevens, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ El Paso field division, and Jose Perez, assistant director in the FBI’s Criminal Division, described cartels as highly organized, violent networks with global reach.
The witnesses said cartels operate with corporate-style logistics and battlefield tactics and that investigators are seeing leadership and money laundered into U.S. communities. "We're not dealing with street dealers and smuggling mules," Allen said, describing large-scale cartel operations and a recent Los Angeles raid in which agents found a mural and luxury assets that investigators tied to cartel leaders.
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