Transnational Drug Trafficking Act of 2011

The Transnational Drug Trafficking Act of 2011 provides new tools for the Justice Department to combat the international drug trade.  The bill puts in place penalties for extraterritorial drug trafficking activity when individuals have “reasonable cause to believe” that illegal drugs will be trafficked into the United States.  Current law states that drug traffickers must “know” that illegal drugs will be trafficked into the United States and this legislation lowers the knowledge threshold to “reasonable cause to believe.”  Drug traffickers from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru produce cocaine in their countries but leave transit of cocaine to the United States in the hands of Mexican drug trafficking organizations such as the Zetas.  Under current law, our ability to prosecute source-nation traffickers from these countries is limited since there is often no direct evidence of their knowledge that illegal drugs were intended for the United States. 

(S.1612)