Ayotte raises issue of federal drug interdiction priority during committee hearing

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) explored how to make federal drug interdiction efforts a priority on Friday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Ayotte, a member of the committee, questioned Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford about U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and Northern Command (NORTHCOM) efforts to interdict heroin and fentanyl being smuggled into the country.

“While we do everything here back home trying to protect ourselves from this scourge, we have got to try to interdict the chains of supply,” Carter said. “And our forces in SOUTHCOM especially, but also NORTHCOM are a part of that.” 

Dunford said that he had been encouraged by the amount of information and intelligence that officials have obtained about heroin and fentanyl smuggling.

“But what I’ve found is that, what we know far exceeds our ability to act on it from an interdiction perspective,” Dunford said. “So, I saw exactly what you’re alluding to, which was a shortfall of the resources necessary to interdict, and I came back with a much better appreciation of that.” 

Interdiction is approximately half of what it should be, Dunford said, adding that it is imperative for SOUTHCOM and NORTHCOM to have the resources to act on available intelligence.

Ayotte, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, has also raised the issue with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Additionally, Ayotte introduced the Stop Trafficking in Fentanyl Act, S. 2027. The bill would reform penalties for trafficking fentanyl and lower the threshold for the amount of fentanyl required to invoke the most severe trafficking penalties.