[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).''.
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