Democratic U.S. senator Tammy Baldwin says the Coast Guard plays a critical role in disrupting the global fentanyl supply chain but needs help to bolster their efforts. Baldwin chairs a committee that held a hearing last week on the Coast Guard’s role in combatting the fentanyl crisis. Baldwin says competing demands for the Coast Guard’s resources impacts their drug interdiction efforts. “…delayed acquisition of new Coast Guard cutters and other vessels, they (Coast Guard) would also point at the workforce recruitment and retention challenges they’re having, and the fact they’re also called to other missions aside from drug interdiction,” Baldwin told WFDL news. Coast Guard officials say last year the Coast Guard removed nearly 100 metric tons of cocaine and detained nearly 270 drug traffickers, but said this fell short of their goals and resources were strained.
