H. R. 1076 

One Hundred Eighteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four 

An Act 

To require the Comptroller General of the United States to carry out a study 

on the trafficking into the United States of synthetic drugs, and related illicit 

finance, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing the Financing of 

Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act’’. 

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

The Congress finds the following: 

(1) According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 107,000 people in the United States died from drug 

overdoses or drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending 

January 2022, with 67 percent of those deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl. 

(2) According to the United National Office of Drugs and 

Crime (UNODC) in its ‘‘Synthetic Drug Strategy 2021-2025’’, 

the number of synthetic drugs, also called New Psychoactive 

Substances, has increased 631 percent since 2009, with traffickers introducing an average of 80 new substances to the 

illicit drug market each year from 2009-2019. 

(3) In October 2022, F. Michael McDaniel, director of the 

Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HITDA) program testified in Congress that one kilogram of fentanyl can 

produce one million counterfeit pills containing one milligram 

of fentanyl, saying, ‘‘Currently in Houston, Texas, you can 

buy a kilogram of fentanyl for an average price of $25,000 

to $30,000. This same kilogram of fentanyl in Culiaca ́n (Mexico) 

could be purchased at an average price of $13,500. Currently, 

the price of a fentanyl pill in Houston ranges from $6 to 

$65. Therefore, an illicit investment of $30,000 or less could 

result in a return of $6 to $32.5 million.’’. 

(4) According to Celina B. Realuyo, Adjunct Professor, The 

George Washington University Elliott School of International 

Affairs, in March 2022 Congressional testimony, ‘‘Financing 

is essential to support and sustain the command and control, 

personnel, arms, communications, logistics and operations of 

organized crime groups. For this reason, following the money 

trail and depriving criminals of illicit financial flows can disrupt 

and disable these networks.’’. 
H. R. 1076—2 

SEC. 3. GAO STUDY ON SYNTHETIC DRUGS TRAFFICKING. 

(a) STUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United States shall 

carry out a study on illicit financing in connection with the trafficking of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, fentanyl- and methamphetamine-related substances, 

Captagon, and fentanyl and methamphetamine precursors, 

including— 

(1) the business of the trafficking of synthetic drugs and 

related illicit finance, such as the participation of transnational 

criminal organizations and terror syndicates and their notable 

trafficking corridors, including source and transit countries; 

(2) the business models used by these transnational 

criminal organizations, including U.S. domestic and foreign 

activities for precursor purchase or production, movement along 

the supply chain, manufacture of the completed product, marketing, distribution, sales, and return of proceeds; 

(3) the overlap of the business model of human trafficking 

and the trafficking of synthetic drugs and related illicit finance; 

(4) the use of online illicit drug markets and the use 

of social media for the marketing, sale, and payment for synthetic drugs; 

(5) financial methods used by such transnational criminal 

organizations, including— 

(A) payment; 

(B) money laundering; and 

(C) repatriation of proceeds; 

(6) the use of social media applications like Snap Chat, 

Discord, and Facebook and payment applications like CashApp 

to facilitate financial transactions for synthetic drug trafficking, 

especially among young people; and 

(7) U.S. Government activities to combat illicit finance 

related to the trafficking of synthetic drugs, including— 

(A) interagency collaboration, including personnel 

detailed to other agencies to support the effort to combat 

synthetic drugs trafficking and related illicit finance; 

(B) intergovernmental collaboration; 

(C) intersectoral collaboration with the private sector, 

including the business and non-governmental communities; 

and 

(D) identified gaps or resource deficiencies in combating the trafficking of synthetic drugs and related illicit 

finance in the coordination and collaboration activities 

described in subparagraphs (A) through (C). 

(b) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than the end of the 1-year 

period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall issue a report to the Congress containing 
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all findings and determinations made in carrying out the study 

required under subsection (a). 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.