Senator Chuck Grassley announced yesterday the Senate voted unanimously to pass a bill to help combat transnational drug trafficking. The act, which was introduced in January, will provide the Department of Justice with new tools to prosecute international drug traffickers in foreign countries. In particular, it would help the department build extradition cases on drug kingpins from the Andean region, which includes Colombia and Peru. Kingpins from those countries often use Mexican drug trafficking organizations as intermediaries to ship illegal narcotics to the United States. Since drug cartels are continually evolving, Grassley said, this legislation ensures that our criminal laws keep pace. He added that this bill closes a loophole abused by drug traffickers. The House of Representatives will need to act on the bill before it can reach the White House.
