Jelly Roll, the face-tattooed former drug dealer turned rapper who has rocketed to stardom as a country musician singing plaintively about his struggles with addiction, came to a Senate hearing room Thursday morning hoping for a savior. “Every concert I perform, I witness the heartbreaking impact of fentanyl. I see fans grappling with this tragedy. … They seek solace in music and hope that their experiences won’t befall others,” Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord told the Senate Banking Committee. “These people crave reassurance that their elected officials actually care more about human life than they do about ideology and partisanship.” His trip to Capitol Hill came to back a bill that would help law enforcement go after money laundering operations that underpin international opioid trafficking, reports Roll Call. Driven by the potency and ubiquity of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, drug deaths have exploded, topping more than 100,000 in 2022.
Introduced by Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and ranking member Tim Scott (R-SC), the bill was approved in committee unanimously and has 67 co-sponsors. It is aimed at disrupting the fentanyl trade by targeting operations based in China that support the drug cartels. Christopher Urben, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, described how Chinese money launderers collect the proceeds of drug deals in the U.S., exchange those dollars to Chinese nationals looking to spend or invest in the U.S. (e.g., buy luxury goods, pay college tuition, or purchase real estate), and then use the exchanged funds to buy Chinese goods, which they ship to Mexico. According to Urben, this complex system operates more efficiently than other money laundering options, fueling the fentanyl trade. All witnesses emphasized that the banking bill was a good start but not enough, and asked lawmakers to work to staunch the root causes of addiction.
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