[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 24, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NARCO-TERRORISM ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY J. HYDE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 2005

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce today the ``Narco-
Terrorism Enforcement Act of 2005.'' This legislation will provide yet 
another tool for our law enforcement agencies in the struggle against 
global terrorism and illicit drugs, and against those who traffick in 
the illicit narcotics which help finance terrorism.
  In a recent hearing before our International Relations Committee on 
the heroin crisis in Afghanistan, our excellent and knowledgeable Drug 
Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that nearly half of the U.S. 
Government-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) around the 
globe have links to illicit narcotics (18 of 40). The nexus between 
terrorism and illicit narcotics grows more and more as evidence emerges 
of their common, supportive links and as the use also increases of drug 
trafficking routes to move both narcotics and terrorists.
  In the case of the Afghan narcotics, which help finance several of 
the terrorist organizations that are today attacking American troops 
and the new Afghan democratic government, much of the heroin produced 
there is supplied to Europe and Asia, not to the United States. In 
cases where there is not yet any known nexus to U.S. trafficking or any 
domestic destinations here at home, our DEA agents on the front line 
often rely on another foreign transiting nation or the producing nation 
itself to bring indictments of these drug trafficking cases and proceed 
with difficult and challenging prosecutions.
  This bill makes clear that, even without direct U.S. nexus, if these 
drugs help support or sustain a foreign terrorist organization, the 
producers and traffickers can, and should be, prosecuted for material 
support of terrorism, whether or not the illicit narcotics are ever 
intended for, or enter, the United States. In addition, this bill 
raises the penalties under the material support-for-terrorism statute 
to reflect the seriousness of this offense. This bill reflects the new 
reality, emerging challenges, and ever-clearer drug links on the global 
terrorism front.
  I look forward to enacting this reform as Congress continues its 
effort to provide our national law enforcement agencies with the tools 
needed to win the war on global terrorism.

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