(NewsNation) — The CIA wants to include crime cartels in the list of targets subject to a controversial surveillance program born in the aftermath of 9/11.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows U.S. intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on the phone calls and emails of non-Americans that pass through the U.S. without obtaining warrants.
In the two decades since the 9/11 attacks, the agencies have expanded their targets to include foreign governments and those trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
Now the nation’s spies want to include transnational organized crime groups involved in trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.
“The threat from illicit drugs remains at historic levels with Mexican transnational criminal supplying and moving large amounts of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in the United States,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in a March 11 hearing.
“More than 100,000 Americans have died from drug related overdose during the last year and most of those deaths have been attributed to illicit fentanyl,” she testified.
According to USA Today, the CIA says it needs the authority to fight the importation of fentanyl from Mexico into the U.S., and to track down the ingredients used to make the deadly drug that travel from China to Mexico.
But the agency faces two big roadblocks: Congressional opposition and the calendar.
Many lawmakers are reluctant to grant the expanded authority based on past abuses, including warrantless spying on Americans. And the warrantless wiretap clause is set to expire on April 19 unless Congress extends it.