The Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief of operations pleaded with lawmakers during a Senate hearing Wednesday, warning over the alleged dangers of marijuana legalization at the state level.

“It scares us,” James L. Capra said according to the Washington Post. “Every part of the world where this has been tried, it has failed time and time again.”

Only one day after court documents revealed the DEA to be smuggling billions in drugs with Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel, backing up a 2011 report by the El Paso Times, the federal agency seemed desperate to keep its blood money flowing uninterrupted, calling the growing legalization movement “reckless and irresponsible.”

“This is a bad experiment,” Capra said. “It’s going to cost us in terms of social costs.”