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Rep. Adrian Smith wants Congress to enact a Methamphetamine Kingpin Elimination Act. The bill would increase penalties for drug kingpin offenses and authorize an additional $20 million for multi-jurisdictional methamphetamine task forces. The introduction of the bill comes after the July 23 arrest of alleged methamphetamine trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon in Wheaton, Md. Police had raided Gon's Mexico City mansion in March, and found more than $207 million, most of it stashed behind false walls and in closets. Zhenli Ye Gon is accused of supplying Mexican drug cartels with massive quantities of restricted chemicals to make methamphetamine. In a prepared statement, Smith said the number of meth labs in the U.S. has declined since Congress restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the manufacture of the drug. However, it is estimated as much as 80 percent of the meth in the U.S. comes from Mexico, he said. "Unlike the small U.S. labs, Mexican drug cartels are creating super labs that produce huge quantities of meth to be smuggled north to the United States," he said. Smith is a member of a Congressional caucus aimed at fighting and controlling methamphetamine.
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