Death threat: Mexican cartel forced witness to cancel congressional testimony

 

A Mexican drug cartel used death threats to force a tribal leader to back out of testifying to Congress this week, according to another tribal leader who did show up to tell lawmakers just how much power the drug lords have accumulated.

Jeffrey Stiffarm, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, said he didn’t want to name the fellow leader who backed out, but he said the threat seemed real and credible.

“One thing that we really seem to overlook all the time is the threats, the death threats we get from cartel leaders,” he told the House Natural Resources Committee. “We had the tribal leader from Montana, that declined to testify here today because he received death threats that he was going to testify.”

The committee held a hearing Wednesday to examine cartel operations on reservations.

The revelation that cartel threats had interfered with lawmakers’ business shocked the members.

“The cartels have threatened them with death?” asked Rep. Bruce Westerman, chairman of the committee. “That’s horrible to think that an American citizen has been threatened by a foreign cartel if they come to Congress and testify about what they’re doing.”

The committee said it had contacted other potential witnesses who declined to testify for safety reasons...more