'This Meth Is Poisoning Them': Dusty Johnson Blasts Cartels Over Meth Epidemic On Reservations

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) spoke about methamphetamine usage on American Indian reservations in South Dakota.

Transcript

00:00A woman from South Dakota, Mr. Johnson is recognized.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:04It's my intention to leave a couple of minutes to yield to you at the end, so be ready for that, sir, if you're able.

00:09Mr. Garris, I want to come to you.

00:11As you probably remember, recently a woman was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison

00:18for her part in helping Mexican drug cartels develop a foothold on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

00:25The methamphetamine that she was helping to move was, the investigative report described it as 100% pure

00:34and sourced directly from Mexican cartels.

00:37As a part of that investigation, two illegal immigrants were deported, and not for the first time.

00:43One had been deported twice before, and the second had been deported four times before.

00:49As you know, this is a crisis in Indian country, and I want to thank you for your attention to the matter.

00:55You had mentioned that in the next three to nine months, 1,500 federal agents and other personnel

01:01will be relocated outside of D.C. across the country.

01:06I commend the administration for that.

01:08Do you have a sense of how many of those folks, A, will be headed to South Dakota to deal with this crisis,

01:13and B, how many will be headed to Indian country in South Dakota to deal with this crisis?

01:19Thank you, sir.

01:20I do not have a number for you, and I apologize.

01:23The special agents in charge of each division will be getting those FSL or personnel in the forthcoming months,

01:32and when they go through their threat review prioritization with their executive management team,

01:39they'll determine how many will go to Indian country.

01:42So in the case of Billings, that would be our Minneapolis office, and the same with all the other offices.

01:50So as you have a conversation with the folks in that Minneapolis office,

01:53because obviously the internal competition for capital will be robust.

01:57Every region is going to want more cops on the beat to keep communities safe.

02:01I've got to ask you, sir.

02:03I mean, Pine Ridge and the other reservations in South Dakota,

02:06but Pine Ridge, among them, are massive landed reservations with thousands of young people who are worthy of our protection.

02:15This meth is poisoning them, and the Mexican drug cartels, as you know, sir,

02:20don't give one damn care for the lives of our Native American children or the non-Natives in South Dakota.

02:28And so to the greatest extent possible, please direct those resources to Pine Ridge and the rest of South Dakota.

02:33With that, Mr. Chairman, I would yield the rest of my time to you.

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