[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 48 (Thursday, April 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2590-S2591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms.
Heitkamp, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, and Mr.
Wyden):
S. 706. A bill to provide the Department of Justice with additional
tools
[[Page S2591]]
to target extraterritorial drug trafficking activity, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Transnational
Drug Trafficking Act of 2013 with my colleagues and friends, Senator
Charles Grassley, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Senator Heidi Heitkamp,
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Tom Udall and Senator Ron Wyden.
This bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in the last Congress,
will support the Obama administration's Strategy to Combat
Transnational Organized Crime by providing the Department of Justice
with crucial tools to help combat the international drug trade. As drug
traffickers find new and innovative ways to avoid prosecution, we must
keep up with them rather than allowing them to exploit loopholes as our
laws lag behind.
This legislation has three main components. First, it puts in place
penalties for extraterritorial drug trafficking activity when
individuals have reasonable cause to believe that illegal drugs will be
trafficked into the United States. Current law says that drug
traffickers must know that illegal drugs will be trafficked into the
United States and this legislation would lower the knowledge threshold
to reasonable cause to believe.
The Department of Justice has informed my office that with increasing
frequency, it sees drug traffickers from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru who
produce cocaine in their countries but leave transit of cocaine to the
United States in the hands of Mexican drug trafficking organizations
such as the Zetas. Under current law, our ability to prosecute source-
nation traffickers from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru is limited since
there is often no direct evidence of their knowledge that illegal drugs
were intended for the United States. But make no mistake, drugs
produced in these countries fuel violent crime throughout the Western
Hemisphere as well as addiction and death in the United States.
Second, this bill puts in place penalties for precursor chemical
producers from other countries, such as those producing pseudoephedrine
used for methamphetamine, who illegally ship precursor chemicals into
the United States knowing that these chemicals will be used to make
illegal drugs.
Third, this bill will make a technical fix to the Counterfeit Drug
Penalty Enhancement Act which was signed into law last year and
increases penalties for the trafficking of counterfeit drugs. The fix,
requested by the Department of Justice, puts in place a ``knowing''
requirement which was unintentionally left out of the original bill.
The original bill makes the mere sale of a drug that happens to be
counterfeit a federal felony offense regardless of whether the seller
knew the drug was counterfeit. Under the original bill, a pharmacist
could be held criminally liable if he or she unwittingly sold
counterfeit drugs to a customer. Adding a ``knowing'' requirement
corrects this problem.
As Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
and as a public servant who has focused on law enforcement issues for
many years, I know that we cannot sit idly by as drug traffickers find
new ways to circumvent our laws. We must provide the Department of
Justice with all of the tools it needs to prosecute drug kingpins both
here at home and abroad.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 706
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Transnational Drug
Trafficking Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. POSSESSION, MANUFACTURE OR DISTRIBUTION FOR PURPOSES
OF UNLAWFUL IMPORTATIONS.
Section 1009 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export
Act (21 U.S.C. 959) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as subsections
(c) and (d), respectively; and
(2) in subsection (a), by striking ``It shall'' and all
that follows and inserting the following: ``It shall be
unlawful for any person to manufacture or distribute a
controlled substance in schedule I or II or flunitrazepam or
a listed chemical intending, knowing, or having reasonable
cause to believe that such substance or chemical will be
unlawfully imported into the United States or into waters
within a distance of 12 miles of the coast of the United
States.
``(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture or
distribute a listed chemical--
``(1) intending or knowing that the listed chemical will be
used to manufacture a controlled substance; and
``(2) intending, knowing, or having reasonable cause to
believe that the controlled substance will be unlawfully
imported into the United States.''.
SEC. 3. TRAFFICKING IN COUNTERFEIT GOODS OR SERVICES.
Chapter 113 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in section 2318(b)(2), by striking ``section 2320(e)''
and insertion ``section 2320(f)''; and
(2) in section 2320--
(A) in subsection (a), by striking paragraph (4) and
inserting the following:
``(4) traffics in a drug and knowingly uses a counterfeit
mark on or in connection with such drug,'';
(B) in subsection (b)(3), in the matter preceding
subparagraph (A), by striking ``counterfeit drug'' and
inserting ``drug that uses a counterfeit mark on or in
connection with the drug''; and
(C) in subsection (f), by striking paragraph (6) and
inserting the following:
``(6) the term `drug' means a drug, as defined in section
201 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C.
321).''.
______