The Treasury Department has launched a new "Strike Force" to crack down on illicit funds behind fentanyl trafficking. But that's not all that's going on. Glenn and Stu discuss the bigger story: According to reporting from Blaze News, the strike force will be led by the Treasury Department as a means to crack down on money laundering networks, particularly those utilizing cryptocurrency. Instead of closing down the border, the government is once again taking aim at Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But Glenn isn't letting this story slide under the radar ...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So the Treasury Department launches a new strike force, to crack down on elicit funds behind fentanyl trafficking.
Stu, this is a story in Blaze media today.
Just tell me just from the headline, what you think this story is really all about.
STU: Give me the headline one more time.
GLENN: Okay. Treasury Department launches new strike force to crack down on illicit funds behind fentanyl trafficking.
STU: Okay. Well, it seems like, you know, you have the stuff coming over the border. Maybe in from China.
They have a crack team, making sure that they can stop this.
GLENN: You really think that's what that's about?
STU: Look, now it's probably something terrible.
But from the headline, it would say, okay.
GLENN: Okay. I'm going to read it.
Stop when you realize what this really is.
Okay.
Biden administration Treasury Department announced Monday, the launch of a new strike force, dedicated to cracking down on illicit funds behind fentanyl trafficking.
Agency recently formed the counter fentanyl strike force to marshal the Treasury's resources and expertise in a coordinated and streamlined operation to combat the trafficking of elicit fentanyl. Any idea yet?
You will. It noted that the strike force will be led by the office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and IRS criminal investigations. Okay? You're starting to get it. Right? Okay.
In Monday's statement, Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, reaffirmed the Biden administration's commitment to stemming the flow of deadly fentanyl into communities across the United States.
She noted the new strike force will allow us to bring the department's unrivaled expertise in fighting financial crime.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Treasury will use every bit of every tool, at its disposal to disrupt the ability of drug traffickers to peddle this poison in our country.
The strike force aims to crack down on money laundering networks.
Do you know what this is about yet?
STU: I mean, it seems like a money grab by the federal government.
Financial -- sorry. Financial monitoring of every citizen.
GLENN: Okay. Okay. Financial strike force aims to crack down on money laundering networks. Particularly those using --
STU: Bitcoin.
GLENN: Yes! Yes.
STU: Okay.
GLENN: You want to stop fentanyl, you close down the border.
STU: You know what it would really help, Glenn.
Because obviously, the way to stop fentanyl. Is to stop Bitcoin.
GLENN: Yes, it is. Isn't it?
STU: It's not just stopping Bitcoin. You need a central bank digital currency. That you can turn off for purchases of this bad things.
That you can stop people from doing all these naughty things.
GLENN: Exactly right.
Everything would go through the financial crimes division of the IRS and the Treasury.
STU: That's perfect.
It's like a department of pre-crime.
GLENN: Something like that. Something like that. We would have to come up with newspeak, to be able to come up with the right terms.
STU: That will solve all our problems. Stop the problems before they start.
GLENN: Yes. I like that. I like that.
STU: Did you see this story from Los Angeles?
Where they had this potential serial killer, and how they caught him.
GLENN: No. I hate these stories. Because I'm always like, good, serial killer caught. The way they did it, really bad.
STU: Oh, yeah. This is all over the country. Basically, this guy had a car. He went in. They found -- they saw him around one of these neighborhoods. He went in and killed someone. Some poor dad in his garage. In his home to kill these kids.
Along with a bunch of homeless people. Anyway, they got his license plate. And every time anyone pulls into Beverly Hills, they scan every single license plate.
So they -- he just drove through Beverly Hills, and they're like, oh, there he is. And just went and got him.
That's -- because every single person who enters the city, has their license plate scanned to see if they're any problem at all.
And the people of Beverly Hills are like, we're really rich, and we don't want people here that we don't like. So we love this idea.
GLENN: Wow. Sometimes just because they're driving a Prius, we say, get out.
STU: Yeah, four cylinders. Get out of town.
