This hearing will come to order. Today we're looking at the topic of narcoterrorism. Our hearing comes as a narcoterrorism-related case exploded into the public eye yesterday afternoon.
The Justice Department detailed an Iranian directed plot to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil. From what we know, a key conspirator in the plot approached a Drug Enforcement Administration informant seeking to hire a drug cartel hit squad to carry out the attack here in Washington, DC.
A plot was planned over multiple meetings in Mexico between the man now in U.S. custody and people that he at the time believed were cartel members.
Iran's Quds Force conceived of a plot to recruit Mexican narcotraffickers in this assassination effort on U.S. soil. The fact that they would do that I don't think should be a great surprise. Clearly, this deadly force felt comfortable navigating the expansive criminal networks south of our border.
For years, border security advocates saying that just because we had one or two Hezbollah operatives come across the border, that it was alarmism to say that this could ever escalate into the type of situation that we face today. But this plot proves just how important a secured border is to our national security.
