From the Office of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) will chair a hearing on the Mexican drug war tomorrow, TUESDAY, March 17th, 2009 at 10:30am. The hearing will be held in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington.
The hearing, Law Enforcement Responses to Mexican Drug Cartels, is the first Senate hearing on the issue and will examine all sides of the ongoing and bloody drug war on America’s southern border including the alarming flow of drugs, guns and bulk cash across the U.S.-Mexico border. The hearing will also discuss initiatives to stem that flow.
According to a recent Justice Department report, Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations represent “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.” Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations are notoriously violent and well armed; over 6,000 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year. These criminal organizations control drug distribution and trafficking in many U.S. cities and have had a severe impact in border states and other parts of the country.
Testifying at the hearing will be: William Hoover, Assistant Director for Field Operations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Anthony P. Placido, Assistant Administrator and Chief of Intelligence, Drug Enforcement Administration; Kumar Kibble, Deputy Director, Office of Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security; Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General; Denise Eugenia Dresser Guerra, Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and contributing writer to the Los Angeles Time; and Jorge Luis Aguirre, Journalist who fled Ciudad Juárez after receiving death threats and is in hiding in El Paso, Texas.
The hearing will be held jointly before the Senate Judiciary Crime and Drugs Subcommittee and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Senator Dianne Feinstein will co-chair the hearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment