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 Preven-
tion, 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 syn-
thetic 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 traf-
fickers 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) pro-
gram 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 traf-
ficking of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl and methamphet-
amine, 
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, mar-
keting, 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 syn-
thetic 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 com-
bating 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 Comp-
troller General shall issue a report to the Congress containing
H. R. 1076—3 
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.