The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Sara Carter on Fentanyl Crisis, Cartel Crackdown & Trump Drug Policy
3/19/202630 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome to The Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get to the heart
0:07of the issues that matter to you.
0:09While we've been covering the events unfolding in Iran, it was not too long ago
0:14in Mexico, where the country erupted in chaos after Mexican forces took out cartel boss
0:21El Mencho and the retaliation was swift.
0:24And we remember a roadblock, shootings, and chaos south of the border.
0:27So we're going to revisit that and where Mexico is now in all of this,
0:32what that means for drugs coming into the United States.
0:35And we're going to talk to Sarah Carter.
0:37You know her from Fox News, but she was recently confirmed as the new United
0:41States drug czar and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
0:46We're diving straight in. You know, how does this cartel power directly impact her job
0:51with what's going on in Mexico and around the world?
0:54And, you know, also with Joe Biden having opened borders for four years and just
0:59allowing millions, millions of illegal aliens into the United States.
1:03How does that complicate her job in trying to cut down the influx of drugs
1:08into the United States and trying to save American lives from overdoses as well?
1:12What kind of drugs are coming into the country?
1:14Where are they coming from?
1:15And what is the Trump administration doing to stop it?
1:18All of that and more with my friend, Sarah Carter.
1:26Well, Sarah Carter, I miss you so much at Fox, but I'm so proud of
1:30you. You just finally got confirmed and you're doing big things.
1:34So it's great to catch up on here, but I miss seeing you and giving
1:38you a hug around Fox.
1:40I miss you too. I know, I miss you, but congratulations on the confirmation.
1:45Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I got confirmed on January 6th.
1:49Interesting date. And then I was already in D .C.
1:53for about eight months working as a special advisor to President Trump, the greatest president
1:58in modern political history. We've just, in the last few months since being confirmed, have
2:03just hit the ground running.
2:04We were working intensely. I have a great team here at the Office of National
2:08Drug Control Policy, an amazing team that has been hyper -focused on fulfilling all of
2:15our obligations to the American people and saving lives, which is central to our mission,
2:22ensuring that we're saving lives and giving people the resources and the tools that they
2:28need to fight against the scourge of drugs, illicit drugs on our streets that are
2:34killing our citizens. And so we're doing that both on an international level, we're doing
2:38that on a national level and across the board, whether that's on the supply side,
2:43hammering the supply that's coming into our country, or on the demand side, because we
2:48have, and as you know, Lisa, my heart goes out to families that are suffering
2:52from addiction, from substance use disorder, and we want to make sure that we're working
2:57as a whole of government to be able to bring effective treatment to the people
3:01that need it and to save our children so that they never have to face
3:05that kind of pain in their lives.
3:07Before we dig into that, what was the confirmation process like?
3:14Oh, grueling. You don't wish that.
3:18I mean, it's an incredible process, so it's part of the American political system, but
3:24nothing like experiencing it firsthand, you know, background checks, question after question after question, investigating
3:31everybody and anyone around you, you know, it doesn't matter if like, you have people
3:35walking through your neighborhood, you know, FBI, asking people questions about you, people that don't
3:41even know you, talking to your neighbors, and also it's the whole process of like
3:47going back, like they were like, we're going to take you all the way back
3:50to when you were 18 years old, and I was kind of like, wow, you
3:54know, I'm, I want to say my age, but you know, as a woman, I
3:58keep that, no, I'm in my 50s now, so going back to like 18 was
4:02like, I don't remember what happened.
4:04Wait a minute. Yeah, it's like, you want to take me back to 18?
4:11I'm like, oh, geez, please, don't let me forget anything.
4:14I don't remember what happened.
4:16Am I in a poly right now?
4:17Are they going to poly me on this?
4:19I mean, I don't remember.
4:19And so it was, it was an incredible process.
4:23It's a grueling process, but it's one that's necessary.
4:25You know, we're here to serve the American people.
4:28I'm here because I love my country.
4:31My husband served his country and our country in a very different capacity, you know,
4:36in the military as a special operator.
4:38And I believe - He was in the line of duty too.
4:41Yeah, yeah. He was wounded in the line of duty.
4:44He lost, you know, his eyesight in Afghanistan, almost lost his life.
4:47We are constantly working to ensure that we are serving our nation.
4:52And so it's important that when we do this process, that when the government puts
4:57us through this process and then the Senate finally confirms us, that we're ready and
5:03we're able to take charge and then lead our teams so that the president has
5:08the best people in place to serve him and to serve the American people who
5:13voted for him. And so I just feel blessed and humbled to be able to
5:18do that. You were in Mexico around the time.
5:22You were in Mexico around the time.
5:23of the killing of notorious cartel leader, El Mencho, which then set off sort of
5:29like mass chaos in Mexico.
5:31Talk about that, the importance of his killing, and then what does that mean for
5:37your capacity and your job as drug czar?
5:41Look, it's huge. It sent a message across Mexico and across the globe, actually, that
5:47if we can get El Mencho, which means the ghost, because he was very elusive,
5:51it was very difficult even for our intelligence agencies and other intelligence agencies to track
5:59this cartel boss down, this foreign terrorist organization's leadership down to the point where we
6:07had actionable intelligence to target him and his, I would say, major lieutenants, to track
6:16them down and to remove him.
6:18Now, the operation changes everything.
6:22And the question that you say is right on target because it sends a message
6:26across the globe that if we can get El Mencho, we can get anybody, right?
6:32And I made sure that when I was in Mexico, that that was the message
6:35that I delivered to the Mexican people.
6:38Like, look, this is about targeting one of the most notorious cartel leaders on the
6:45planet. And for me, it was important to be there.
6:48So we arrived about a day and a half is what I'm guesstimating right after
6:53El Mencho operation had begun.
6:58The Mexican troops who led the operation were led by General Trivia.
7:03He is the defense minister.
7:05So he led the operation to target El Mencho with the assistance of the United
7:10States. So we worked together on this operation.
7:14But the boots on the ground were the Mexican officials.
7:18And believe me, they had suffered extraordinary losses.
7:21So when they went into Jalisco to target El Mencho, they had lost three special
7:26operators right off the bat during that operation.
7:29And then there were 33 National Guard.
7:34They call Juárdia Nacional in Mexico.
7:36So their National Guard, they had lost 33.
7:39And then it went up.
7:40The numbers kept climbing. And the intensity of that operation was unlike any we had
7:46seen in the past. Really, they had attempted to try to capture El Mencho at
7:51first. But obviously, there was, and I'll tell you something interesting, there was an altercation.
7:56So they had been following El Mencho's girlfriend.
7:59And this information is out there, not telling anybody anything that's not classified.
8:05So they were tracking the girlfriend.
8:07He couldn't stay away from his women.
8:09So that did him in.
8:11So they ended up finding his location.
8:14When the operation began, according to the folks that I spoke with, El Mencho was
8:20obviously on the run. And his men were firing weapons at, you know, the special
8:27operators that were on the ground that were targeting them.
8:31There was weapon fire being back and forth.
8:34El Mencho was obviously struck.
8:37Some people I talked to said he didn't have enough cardio.
8:40So he didn't make it.
8:41Always bring cardio to a gunfight.
8:43He couldn't outrun and shoot at the same time.
8:46They tried to get him back out of the area to a medical facility.
8:53He died on the way out of Jalisco.
8:57So it was a very intense battle.
8:59These guys out -resourced many of our law enforcement officials and organizations.
9:04These organizations, these cartels, these FTOs have amassed hundreds of billions of dollars, Lisa, hundreds
9:12of billions of dollars. Especially if you look at the border being wide open under
9:17Biden, how much money they amassed under there in human trafficking and drug trafficking.
9:22They have communication systems and technologies that sometimes outpace our own, especially on local and
9:30state level law enforcement. In Mexico, it's the same issue.
9:34They have weapons. They've amassed weapons, armored vehicles, military vehicles, uniforms.
9:41So many of them operate like shadow governments in a way.
9:44You get into these mountainous regions, whether it's Sina Lower or up in Jalisco or
9:49other areas of Mexico, where these guys are walking around.
9:52And if you didn't know any wiser, you would think, oh, this is a Mexican
9:56military. This might be Federales.
9:58No, it's not. It's CJNG.
10:00You know, it's Jalisco Nuevo Generacion.
10:03You're dealing with the most dangerous and deadly cartels on the planet.
10:07And now they have the equipment and the skills and the training and the communications
10:15that many of our law enforcement officials would envy.
10:20Right. So this battle, this fight between Mexican defense and the Ministry of Defense and
10:30working together with the United States to get actionable intelligence to target this player was
10:36absolutely incredible. It went beyond anything we've ever seen before.
10:40And I'm going to tell you why.
10:41Because we have President Trump in office and he has been on the phone with
10:46President Scheinbaum back and forth, back and forth, back and forth and kind of laying.
10:50the groundwork for this to happen.
10:53And because of that, our relationship with Mexico, although many times strained and we don't
11:00agree politically on a lot of paths forward, but when it comes to narcotics and
11:05when it comes to protecting the American people and our children, that is number one.
11:10That will always be number one.
11:13But we want to work together because why?
11:15We want our neighbors to be as safe as us because that puts America first.
11:21So if we continue down this path, and that's why I was in Mexico, working
11:26closely with the security cabinet.
11:29I had bilateral meetings with the Mexican security cabinet.
11:33I met with their foreign minister, De La Fuentes, and I continue those talks with
11:41the ambassador here, Moctezuma, here in the United States, continuing to work together for a
11:47common goal. It not only, you know, protects the American people, which is primary and
11:53first and foremost, but it protects the entire hemisphere and gets us right back to
11:58where President Trump wants us to be, which is protecting the Western hemisphere so we
12:04can put the American people first.
12:06Got to take a quick commercial break, more with Director Carter on the other side.
12:12Where are most of the drugs coming into the country from?
12:16We've got them coming in.
12:17Most of them are coming in through the border.
12:19Now we're seeing a lot of the air cargo, mail.
12:24We're still seeing drugs coming into the border.
12:26We're still stopping it. Thank God we've got an incredible border patrol and incredible, you
12:31know, employees with our DHS working with us, but we're also getting them by sea.
12:36We've seen, you know, President Trump and the operations out in the Caribbean striking the
12:40boats out at sea. We've seen in Colombia an incredible growth, sadly, of coca.
12:47And we're seeing cocaine on the rise.
12:50We also see methamphetamine and the purity of methamphetamine on the rise.
12:54So the cartels are always going to try to find new choke points, right?
12:59That's what we're looking for is where are those choke points so we can stop
13:02them to try to get their narcotics into the country.
13:05But we have seen a decrease.
13:07Right now, the flow of fentanyl into the United States is down 56 percent, which
13:12is huge. Big number. Yeah, it's a huge, you know, drug traffickers, they're persistent.
13:18And they'll use any other method possible to try to get the narcotics in.
13:24One of my first trips, Lisa, was actually to Alaska, believe it or not, because
13:29I was so concerned. How is it that the drug traffickers, how is it that
13:34Sinaloa cartel is getting fentanyl into Alaska enough so, enough so that it became the
13:40number one killer of people between the ages of 18 and 45 in the state
13:44of Alaska, in a state where the population is like 750 ,000, right?
13:48So how is this happening?
13:50Well, it's happening because they're getting it through the ports, through the mail, through the
13:55airport. So it's not just seaports, it's airports, it's mail.
13:59So we want to cut off those choke points.
14:03And we're seeing it work.
14:05We're working together. I'm telling you, I've never seen anything like this, especially as a
14:10whole of government. And, you know, being an investigative journalist in the past and watching
14:14what's happened in other administrations and, you know, seeing those failures.
14:19In this administration, I can tell you this, I can pick up the phone.
14:23And if I need to, I can reach out to Pam Bondi and have her
14:27on the other line right away.
14:28If, if, if the FBI director needs to reach out to me for anything, he
14:34can call me right away.
14:36If I need to talk to Rodney Scott over at CBP, he can reach me
14:41right away. I can reach him right away.
14:43Tom Homan, the same thing.
14:45We all know each other and we all work together.
14:48And that's what's driving these cartels out of their minds.
14:52They cannot and they will not be able to outsmart us in this administration because
15:02we have, we're working as a united front to protect the American people on this.
15:07And that's why we've seen a decrease in deaths just since President Trump took office
15:11of nearly 20%. So that for us is, is huge.
15:16It should be even less.
15:18So we don't want to see 80 ,000 deaths or nearly 80 ,000 deaths.
15:22We want it to be zero deaths, but we are going to work towards that.
15:26And we are going to work towards saving our children from, from these cartels that
15:31are poisoning them and killing them.
15:33And it's also China with the precursor.
15:36So, you know, walk us through sort of what's been done to sort of mitigate
15:41just the origination of fentanyl.
15:44So one of the biggest things for me here at ONDCP, the Office of National
15:49Drug Control Strategy, is our national drug control strategy, which we will be releasing, I
15:55believe, in May. And so we're already in the process of finishing touches on this.
16:00This is the president's strategy for the United States.
16:03We're already doing it. It's already enacted.
16:05We're just enhancing that. And part of that is our supply chain, ensuring that the
16:11supply chain is clean from origination to its destination.
16:15And whether that, and that could be anything, that could be.
16:18products coming from China and making sure that the cargo is not, that there's not
16:24fentanyl precursors on that cargo heading to Mexico or heading to any place else in
16:29the Western Hemisphere. And so I've been working very closely with my Chinese counterparts.
16:35In fact, I have some meetings coming up soon here in Washington, D .C.
16:40with our Chinese counterparts. And I was very direct.
16:43I went to the UN and I was at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic
16:47Drugs. I spoke there. I led the delegation for the United States in Vienna, Austria,
16:53and I gave the speech for the United States.
16:57And I called out China.
16:59I called out China for their continuing failure to ensure that clean supply chain.
17:06And we, as a whole of government, and President Trump has made this very clear,
17:11are going to hold them accountable for that.
17:14So we expect the supply chain to be clean.
17:17And that means that China has to do their part to ensure that manufacturers in
17:23China and those that are processing these precursor chemicals and creating these varying analogs are
17:32not getting that into our supply chain.
17:36And we've given them a number of opportunities.
17:38FBI Director Kash Patel's met with his counterparts on this.
17:41I'm meeting with my counterparts on this.
17:44And we're just going to keep being a hammer.
17:46And we are going to continue to inspect those supply chains.
17:49And look, we're going to put the onus on private industry as well.
17:53Look, if you want to import products into the United States, then you have to
18:00ensure that your supply chain is clean.
18:03And if it's not, we're going to be a hammer.
18:05And if it's clean, guess what?
18:07We're going to give you a carrot, right?
18:09We're going to make it better for you to bring your products into the U
18:13.S. to import those products as long as that chain is clean.
18:17And that's something that is central to our mission and to our work.
18:22So it is right where we need it to be right now as far as
18:27our ongoing negotiations. And I can tell you this, China and the United States, we're
18:34continuing down that road. And I will continue to be a hammer on China.
18:39And we know where it's coming from.
18:40I've always said this, Lisa, and I'm not going to change anything now that I'm
18:44in government. I've been tough on this in the past.
18:47Our adversaries know that bringing poison into our country weakens our nation.
18:52It breaks our communities. It breaks the foundation of our nation.
18:56It harms our children. It destroys families.
19:00And our adversaries, they're not doing, this isn't an accident.
19:05This is purposeful. And I've always said that if China doesn't want us to call
19:11them out publicly, then they need to stop it.
19:15Because the CCP, President Xi Jinping, knows full well, to a large extent, what is
19:21exiting his nation and what is coming to our nation.
19:27So the most important thing for China to understand, and I've made this very clear
19:32to my Chinese counterparts, is one, we want a clean supply chain.
19:36So the onus is on China for this.
19:39They know what's coming out of their country.
19:42And they should stop it.
19:44And number two, we want deaths reduced in the United States.
19:48And that means a clean supply chain.
19:50It doesn't mean we changed the chemical compound or have a new analog that the
19:57cartels can use to push more pills onto our streets that are pure poison to
20:03kill American people. We've seen the fentanyl, the reduction in deaths.
20:08We've also seen weaker fentanyl product, right?
20:12So the fentanyl that's coming, that's being adulterated into other narcotics is sometimes weaker.
20:19But that doesn't mean it's any less deadly.
20:22We're seeing other chemical compounds out there that are deadly.
20:25And that's why we're also looking at emerging threats.
20:29And I want people to understand this.
20:32This is a national security issue.
20:34This is not just a horrible drug crisis, which of course it is, but it
20:40is a national security issue for our administration.
20:43And we want to ensure that that supply chain never becomes an even bigger threat
20:49than what it already is.
20:50So emerging threats is top of the line for us as well in the national
20:54drug control strategy. It's my first chapter.
20:58And it will, it is up to us to do our job for the American
21:03people to ensure that we see what's coming into our country and that we stay
21:0810 steps ahead of our adversaries so we're not caught off guard and seeing mass
21:14casualty events in the United States.
21:16Got to take a quick break.
21:17If you like what you're hearing, please share on social media or send it to
21:20your family and friends. Joe Biden let in millions of illegal aliens over a four
21:29-year period of time into this country.
21:31How does it complicate your job and the job of the president in trying to
21:38protect people from drugs? I mean, it's super complicated when you think about it.
21:45I mean, what... I mean, what...
21:46Joe Biden did to this nation and his administration during those four years was a
21:51crime against the American people, period.
21:55It was a crime against America.
21:57It was a purposeful policy, Lisa.
21:59It was a policy that allowed people to just flood our nation with narcotics, with
22:05human trafficking. It harmed children on both sides of the border.
22:10God knows how many lost their lives, not just from narcotics and the poisonings, but
22:17from the human trafficking element, which I covered extensively.
22:21So it harms us because it opened the door to terrorist organizations.
22:27And by the way, funded by narcotics.
22:32These FTOs, these foreign terrorist organizations, whether it's Sinaloa Cartel, you know, CJNG, you can
22:40name it, on and on and on.
22:42These people have nexus with other terrorist organizations in the Middle East, in the Far
22:49East. And those organizations use drug money to finance their terror.
22:55So who's in the United States?
22:58I mean, I think we've heard, you know, director of DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, we've heard
23:03Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, me, everybody warn about the fact that whoever crossed that border
23:11and was not vetted and had not been vetted is a potential threat to our
23:17nation, is a potential threat to our nation.
23:20And by the way, it also allowed the cartels to establish more and more distribution
23:28networks in the country. Because while they're all terrorists, they could then move in their
23:36supply into our nation, which is something we are looking at, and set up their
23:41own distribution networks. So hey, if we shut down the border, are they processing drugs
23:47here in the U .S.?
23:48What do we need to be looking for?
23:50How do we need to target these cartels?
23:53I mean, because while they're operational on other, you know, in foreign nations, whether that
23:58be, you know, Mexico, Colombia, you know, Peru, Bolivia, you name it, whether those guys
24:06are operational in other places, they're just as operational on our homeland.
24:11And they have developed distribution sites and areas both on the, you know, in the
24:17East Coast to the West Coast to the Midwest to the Southwest.
24:21So our law enforcement agencies, both on the federal, state, and local level, and I
24:27feel so blessed because my office provides the grants for the high -intensity drug trafficking
24:33areas. Those are our HIDA teams, and they are working day and night to root
24:39out these bad guys and to get them out of our country.
24:42And that's why this is a whole -of -government approach, because we can't do it
24:48without ICE. We can't do it without, you know, working together with DHS, working together
24:53with, you know, Rodney Scott over at Border Patrol, working with our, you know, our
24:59teams, Tom Homan, everybody else, in an effort to get these bad players out of
25:05here. So it's not just about, you know, what were the terrorists that possibly crossed
25:11our border and how could they threaten us?
25:13Because that's, that is, that is a top priority to us on a national security
25:17level. But the national security level is too, is how do they crisscross a nexus
25:22with these drug trafficking organizations?
25:24And who are the people that are here already that have made it across that
25:28border, that were never properly vetted under Biden, that now pose a direct threat in
25:33our communities and to our children?
25:35And it makes the job tougher, but it's not impossible.
25:39We are getting these guys out.
25:41And just like we got Almencho, Lisa, we are going to get every single player
25:45in the United States out of here.
25:47We're going to get the bad guys in here and charge so they can't escape
25:51out of prison anywhere else.
25:52We're going to hold them, the top dogs accountable, and we're going to break their
25:56financing. And that's a big part of the puzzle too.
25:59We don't want to just take the head off the snake.
26:01We want to take the head off the snake and then gut all of their
26:06coffers. We want to take their money away so that they cannot utilize that against
26:12us in the future and they cannot utilize it against a foreign government.
26:16It's a very complex process, but it's one that we absolutely can do and one
26:21that we absolutely can win.
26:23You know, in hearing you talk about all this and like President Trump made the
26:26right decision, so she's going to get them.
26:32Sarah, is there anything you'd like to leave us with before we go?
26:36Look, I just want everyone to know, and thank you so much, Lisa, for having
26:40me on the show. It means so much to me.
26:42In the end, this is not about the diplomacy or the politicking or what party
26:50we belong to. This is about all of us as Americans.
26:55This is about us as people.
26:57This is about people. The only reason I am here really is because our children
27:03need us. Our community needs us.
27:06We need each other. We need to work together, whether it's the angel families that
27:11have suffered the greatest loss that I can.
27:13ever imagine. I have six children.
27:16I can't even imagine the pain and suffering that these families feel when they think
27:22back on their child and their child, you know, accidentally ingested fentanyl at the age
27:27of two or three and died.
27:29Or, you know, people like Ann Funder who are standing up and fighting for other
27:34families because their 15 -year -old child died because they took a pill that was
27:39pure poison that they thought was something else.
27:42This is about us. And if I can leave anybody with anything, it's about why
27:48we need to work together.
27:49This is a bipartisan issue.
27:51This should not be a partisan issue.
27:53We should all be willing to work together to save our nation and to save
27:57our children. And if, you know, I have a deep faith in God, then I
28:01pray on that all the time.
28:03And I pray for our country and I pray that I make the right decisions
28:07and that I do the right thing.
28:09But if I could leave anybody with anything, it's just, you know, fight for each
28:13other. Realize that unless we're working together, we can't win this.
28:19We all have to be on the same page here.
28:21These people are. The evil is.
28:24The evil is working against us 24 -7.
28:27These nefarious organizations, they don't care about our children.
28:31They don't care about our nation.
28:32They don't care about the future.
28:34We don't want to give them an inch.
28:36We want to be a force to be reckoned with.
28:39And mama and papa bears out there, you know what?
28:41You are the force. Stand up for your kids.
28:44Fight for them. Don't worry about all of the politics and everything.
28:49Worry about what we can do as a nation to fight these cartels and to
28:55save our country for the future and for generations to come.
28:59Amen. Sarah Carter, the United States Drug Czar and Director of the Office of National
29:04Drug Control Policy. Love you, my friend.
29:06It's great to hear from you.
29:07I'm very proud of you.
29:09Thank you. Love you too, Lisa.
29:10Thank you for having me on.
29:11That was Sarah Carter, Drug Czar and Director.
29:14Excuse me. That was Sarah Carter, Drug Czar and Director of the Office of National
29:19Drug Control Policy. Appreciate her for making the time to come on this show.
29:23Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen
29:27throughout the week. Also want to thank John Cassio, my producer, for putting the show
29:30together. Until next time.