Alex Padilla Discusses Ways To Stop Weapons Trafficking From The US To Mexican Cartels

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) asked DEA, FBI and HSI agents about operations to stop weapons trafficking from the US to Mexico.

Transcript

00:00Is that, are you done?

00:05I'm never done, but since time is out, I will be done.

00:08Senator Padillo.

00:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:12And I, too, thank all three of our witnesses for your service

00:17and for your participation here today.

00:22I've been sitting here for a few minutes and observing from my office as well.

00:27I know there's a lot of passionate comments that have been shared on both sides of the dais here.

00:33And I'll try to stay as focused as I can on policy

00:37and to be driven by, I think, some key data points, which are helpful for this discussion.

00:45And I would begin by recognizing, and tell me if you disagree,

00:48but Mexican cartels rely heavily on firearms,

00:53which we understand are trafficked from the United States,

00:58including military-grade weapons like sniper rifles.

01:02Now, while Mexico has strict gun laws on the books

01:05and only one legal drugstore,

01:08our understanding, our intelligence tells us that it's U.S.-based straw purchasers

01:14and rogue dealers who play a significant role

01:17in arming transnational criminal organizations.

01:21According to ATF,

01:23up to 500,000 U.S.-sourced guns are trafficked to Mexico each year,

01:30undermining both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement efforts.

01:33I'm not seeing any no-nods from all of you,

01:37so I assume you're agreeing with me so far.

01:39I associate myself with a question and issue that Senator Durbin raised earlier

01:45about what role United States-sourced firearms play

01:48in enabling cartel violence and drug trafficking operations.

01:51So I want to sort of follow up on that and ask first you, Mr. Stevens,

01:55what role do unlicensed sellers, gun shows, or online marketplaces play

02:01in firearms trafficking to cartels?

02:04And if you can, just as a follow up, how has HSI adapted its investigative approach

02:09in response to these challenges?

02:11Thank you for your question, sir.

02:14So as it relates to gun shows and the gun shops,

02:17that would be the straw purchasing piece,

02:19which ATF is the primary lead on.

02:23We work with them hand in hand.

02:26I know you guys probably get tired of hearing about the Homeland Security Task Forces,

02:29but it is a great concept now because we're not just collaborating.

02:34We're co-located and we're co-mingled to work together,

02:38and we're talking every single day, greater than what we've ever done in my 32-plus years.

02:43And so we're working with the ATF to ensure that if they have a straw purchaser

02:48or they believe that the weapons are going to be exported in southbound,

02:51that they're working with us.

02:52And we're working hand in hand with our Customs and Border Protection partners

02:55to ensure that we have outbound operations and inspections going

02:58so that weapons and ammunition and currency isn't southbound

03:02and getting into the hands of the cartels.

03:04So I just want to make sure I'm understanding your response clearly.

03:08When I mentioned the examples of gun shows or online marketplaces,

03:13coordination is great.

03:14Are you suggesting that because of the new communication coordination with other agencies

03:21that the online marketplaces and the gun shows are no longer a challenge or a concern,

03:27or do they remain a challenge and a concern?

03:30I must have misunderstood your question.

03:31They absolutely remain a concern, sir.

03:33Okay.

03:35So, again, I'm glad I asked to follow up for clarity.

03:38So what new strategies are being adopted, particularly through this newfound coordination,

03:47to help address those, or what new strategies would you recommend to be able to tackle

03:52the challenges of online marketplaces and gun shows?

03:58So I think the way the HSTF or the Homeland Security Task Force is going to work out of El Paso,

04:04it is co-led by the FBI, SAC, and myself.

04:08As we sit together, we're going to have debriefings or briefings from our intelligence teams,

04:14and we're going to have a greater understanding of what each agency is seeing as it relates

04:19to the cartels, what the major cartel threats are within our corridor,

04:23and the same with the weapons trafficking.

04:24And so we're going to be able to have a greater understanding as a whole

04:27and be able to focus as a whole of government to be able to address that.

04:31I would love as a follow-up to this hearing to hear more about what recommendations

04:34or policy changes come of those conversations, because we're more than five months into this administration.

04:41A lot of these task forces and operations are not new,

04:46so I'm eager that some of the improvements come sooner rather than later.

04:50You mentioned the FBI.

04:51I have one more question for Mr. Pettis.

04:54How does the FBI coordinate with other federal and foreign partners, for that matter,

04:59to trace the firearms recovered from cartel-related crimes?

05:04And as a follow-up to that, what new tools would improve your ability to hold the traffickers accountable?

05:11Thank you for the question, sir.

05:12On the firearms tracing south of the border and really domestically, too,

05:17again, that is ATF's primary role.

05:19We submit our firearms to trace through the ATF systems.

05:22But, again, the recipe for success there is we're talking about Homeland Security Task Force

05:26as a co-located or a joint environment where we're working these cases side by side.

05:29I'll go back to my earlier comments, Senator, when I talked about our focus, though, on these cartels.

05:34We're not focused on one particular violation.

05:36We're not just focused on fentanyl, even though I know we're spending a lot of time speaking about that.

05:40We're focusing on these groups themselves and all types of crimes that they commit.

05:44And as I mentioned previously, sir, through our investigations, collective investigations,

05:48just this year alone, we've seized close to 3,000 firearms in our investigations.

05:52I'm sorry, close to 4,000, over 2,200 along our southwest border offices.

05:58So as we continue to aggressively and better investigate these cartels, these groups,

06:02that transit in fentanyl and drug trafficking and other human trafficking, also in firearms,

06:07we're going to encounter firearms trafficking.

06:09We're going to encounter how they get them, how they move them,

06:11and anyone else who's complicit in that environment.

06:13Thank you all.

06:15And Mr. Chairman, just in wrapping here, I know my time is up only because I've heard so many of my colleagues

06:20raise the issue of the current immigration enforcement actions, not just in Los Angeles,

06:25but particularly in Los Angeles.

06:27I'm hoping you've seen reporting of Cato Institute research and findings that more than 90% of the migrants

06:35that have been detained since October, so the beginning of the fiscal year,

06:39do not have serious criminal convictions.

06:43If this was indeed truly solely targeting dangerous, violent criminals, there would be no disagreement.

06:49There would be no debate.

06:51But what we see in practice is much different than that.

06:55So to the extent that you're all just focusing on the dangerous, violent criminals with that criminal history

07:01and or convictions, we applaud you.

07:05Enforcement beyond that, I think that's a worthy subject matter of discussion.

07:09Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

07:10Before Senator Graham, I want to put in the record without opposition.

07:17Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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