Santa Barbara Rep. Carbajal Co-Authors Bill Enlisting Military in Fentanyl Interdiction

Congressmember Salud Carbajal — accompanied by high-ranking law enforcements officials from Santa Barbara and Venture counties at a press conference in Ventura on Wednesday — talked up a bill he co-authored that will enlist the Department of Defense in international efforts to stop fentanyl produced in Mexico from making its way across the border.

The bill — the Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act — defines fentanyl as an “unprecedented, nontraditional, and long-term threat to the national security of the United States,” and instructs the Department of Defense to craft a strategy for improved coordination with its Mexican counterparts in tracking down and rooting out fentanyl manufacturing hubs in Mexico — or, in the words of the bill, to craft “an integrated and synchronized interagency organizational construct” and deploy “military-unique capabilities” to support efforts by the U.S. and Mexican militaries to eradicate fentanyl manufacturing.

Of the many opioids, fentanyl is uniquely deadly, requiring just a few grains to kill a person. In 2022, fentanyl was responsible for 115 overdose deaths in Santa Barbara County compared to 17 deaths in 2017. In 2023, the total so far has been 78. (By contrast, alcohol was listed as the cause of death for 18 people in the county last year.)

The bill — passed by both houses but not yet signed into law by President Joe Biden — directs the Department of Defense to use some of the $918 million allocated in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act on drug interdiction.

Carbajal’s media spokesperson Ian Mariani noted that the military has played a role in drug interdiction efforts before, recognizing a nexus between terrorist organizations like the Taliban and ISIS who have used proceeds from the drug trade to fund military actions. The point of the bill, he said, is to ensure maximum efficiency in the communication and coordination that takes place — or doesn’t — between the multiple agencies responding to the fentanyl crisis.