WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKZO AM/FM) – After more than a dozen overdoses and five deaths in a 24 hour span last week, 4th District Congressman Bill Huizenga has called on the Biden Administration to levy further sanctions on Chinese companies he says are supporting the deadly drug trade in Mexico.
The U.S. Department of Treasury Friday announced sanctions against two entities in China and five individuals, based in China and Guatemala, for supplying precursor chemicals to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico for the production of illicit fentanyl intended for U.S. markets.
Huizinga Monday said, “Preventing this poison from entering our communities requires Republicans and Democrats working together to both secure our border and stop this deadly drug at its source. Here at home, Congress must lead the effort to secure our southern border by ensuring those tasked with restoring border integrity have the resources, technology, and personnel necessary to stop fentanyl from entering the United States and reaching Southwest Michigan.”
Prior to the deaths and overdoses last week in Kalamazoo, believed to have been cause by fentanyl laced heroin, Michigan State Police made a drug bust in Van Buren County March 9, confiscating four kilos of fentanyl they say was linked to the Sinaloa cartel.
The sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will result in the following: all property and interests in property of the designated individuals and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.
