Tennessee Representative Introduces Bill to Prevent Drug Traffickers from Exploiting the U.S. Postal Service for Drug Shipments

U.S. Representatives David Kustoff (R-TN-08) and Mike Ezell (R-MS-04) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would enact stronger measures to stop drug traffickers from using the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to mail illegal drugs and precursor chemicals into the United States.

NEW BILL —> Today I introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to stop China and other bad actors from sending fentanyl and other deadly drugs into our country from overseas.

More on by bill 👇
https://t.co/bd5WXvM1pt

— Rep. David Kustoff (@RepDavidKustoff) June 12, 2023

Kustoff and Ezell’s Uniform Postal Data Acquisition for Transparency and Early Detection within the United States Postal Service (UPDATED USPS) Act would strengthen enforcement measures in the existing STOP Act of 2018.

The STOP Act of 2018 required advanced electronic data (AED) to be recorded on inbound international packages in order to provide postal carriers and law enforcement partners with certain information on each package, including its destination, contents, and sender.

However, according to Kustoff’s office, drug traffickers have “exploited loopholes” in the wake of the USPS’ AED implementation and have continued moving drugs – specifically fentanyl – and precursor chemicals into the United States.

As a sheriff, I saw first-hand how fentanyl has taken lives and devastated communities.@RepDavidKustoff and I introduced the UPDATED USPS Act to make it harder for nations like China to mail deadly drugs into the US and help law enforcement shut down fentanyl supply chains. pic.twitter.com/DFSteiNqAO

— Congressman Mike Ezell (@RepEzell) June 12, 2023

Kustoff and Ezell’s new bill (H.R.4023) looks to close the suspected loopholes in the STOP Act of 2018 by implementing the following enforcements:

• End exemption waivers that allow nations like China to evade detection by first shipping fentanyl into other countries before sending it to the United States;
• Require the USPS to publish statistics about incoming international mail without AED, including country of origin, to help law enforcement identify and shut down fentanyl supply chains;
• Require mail sent from other nations without AED to be returned to sender, not housed in the United States; and
• Expand AED requirements beyond packages to all mail, which better addresses the potency of even small amounts of fentanyl.

The UPDATED USPS Act also comes at a time when the USPS is facing a separate issue of its own – robberies of postal carriers.

Across the nation, robberies of postal carriers and theft of mail have increased in recent years.

Just last month, a Memphis man was sentenced to nine years in federal prison in connection with armed robberies of several postal workers, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “David Kustoff” by Eric Connolly. Photo “Mike Ezell” by United States House of Representatives. Background Photo “United States Postal Service” by Sam LaRussa.