Mexican cartels accused of killing 70,000 Americans a year with fentanyl

 Fox News:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday warned that America "is under attack" from Mexican drug cartels, and urged fellow lawmakers and the head of Homeland Security that the U.S. needs "to be at war with them" in response to the fentanyl crisis.

"What are we going to do about the poisoning of America?" Graham said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which had DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a witness. "So here's what I would say: America is under attack. Our nation is being attacked by foreign powers called drug cartels in Mexico."

Graham noted that around 70,000 Americans die a year due to fentanyl – which is produced in Mexico using Chinese precursors and then smuggled across the U.S. land border. Cartels facilitate both the production and the transport of fentanyl into the U.S.

MEXICAN SEIZURE OF US COMPANY'S FACILITY MARKS LATEST DIPLOMATIC FUROR AMID TENSIONS OVER FENTANYL, CARTELS

"When the Japanese attacked America at Pearl Harbor, they killed about 3,000 Americans; 9/11 when we were attacked, about 3,000. This is the largest attack on American homeland by a foreign power in the history of the nation," he said.

Graham used the hearing to re-up his calls for cartels to be declared foreign terrorist organizations and for the U.S. to use military force to take out cartel labs.

Attorney General Merrick Garland recently told lawmakers Mexico was helping the U.S. with the issue of fentanyl, but could still be doing more. He also said the epidemic is being "unleashed on purpose" by Mexico. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, told lawmakers that parts of Mexico are controlled by the cartels.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reacted angrily to the increased rhetoric from Washington and falsely claimed that fentanyl is not produced in Mexico as he attempted to shift the blame onto the U.S.
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"Who controls these red zones? Drug cartels that are making billions of dollars of bringing fentanyl in the country and human trafficking due to a broken immigration system," he said.

He added that it was time to "take the gloves off."
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The Mexican president is being irresponsible and misleading.  President Trump wanted to use missiles against the cartels' operations.  That is looking like a good way to deal with the problem if Mexico won't deal with it.

The current death toll from fentanyl is greater than the US deaths in the Vietnam war.

See, also:

Trump Asks Advisers for ‘Battle Plans’ to ‘Attack Mexico’ if Reelected