National Sheriff's Assn. Calls on Biden to Act on Drug Cartels

Alexandria, VA - The National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) is calling on Congress to take immediate action on cartels, especially considering the Americans killed in Mexico last week. New initiatives in Congress are calling on the US Government to use more determined tools to degrade, undermine and eliminate the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico. NSA applauds these efforts and asks Congress to use its broad legislative authorities to build a comprehensive system of manpower and other tools to prevent illicit drugs from being produced, smuggled, and sold on American streets.   

“The nation’s sheriffs strongly support the American people’s continued demand that our federal government use whatever means appropriate to combat these deadly cartels,” stated Sheriff Jim Skinner, chair of the National Sheriffs’ Association Government Affairs Committee. He went further, “Without clear, determined and strong action against the Mexican cartels and their partners, we are witnessing the destruction of our families and communities. We must use the means necessary to undermine the cartels now.”  

Two of the most dangerous cartels are the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. But the list also includes the Beltran-Levya Cartel, the Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, and the La Familia Michoacana/Knights Templar Cartel. Last month, NSA joined the other associations in the American Sheriff Alliance in imploring the American public to demand that their elected officials use every available sanction and accountability tool to combat the atrocities committed against the United States and its people by the drug cartels in Mexico.   

The Alliance is focused on the death and destruction caused by the cartels’ organized manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other illicit drugs. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control estimated that fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other illicit drugs caused over 107,000 deaths in this country in the 12 months ending August 2022. Over the same time, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized thousands of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other illicit drugs.  

Over the last two weeks, the cartels have reminded us of another of their frequent crimes, murder. Preliminary reports indicate that in the week of February 28, cartel gunmen kidnapped four Americans who had travelled to northern Mexico for a medical procedure. On Tuesday, March 7, officials discovered two of the four dead. This crime recalls the Juarez Cartel’s brutal murder of six women and three children who were members of the La Mora community in 2019. The victims held dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship. The cartels’ turf wars and related murders are infamous, and these murders also victimize the people of Mexico. Simply put, the cartels are the enemy of good people on both sides of the border.  

The National Sheriffs’ Association is one of the largest non-profit associations of law enforcement professionals in the United States, representing more than 3,000 elected sheriffs across the nation, and with a total membership of approximately 10,000 individuals. NSA is dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among sheriffs, their deputies, and others in the field of law enforcement, public safety, and criminal justice. Throughout its eighty-two-year history, NSA has also served as an information resource for all law enforcement, as well as local, state, and federal government agencies.