Republican senators requesting information on DEA strategy to fight drug networks, cartels and narcotics smuggling

Writing to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgrim this week, a group of Republican senators requested details on the agency’s moves to crack down on illegal narcotics and their suppliers.

Citing the ongoing opioid crisis that, as of Feb. 9, 2022, led to more than 100,000 fentanyl-related deaths in a year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the senators blamed a mix of issues at the southern border, social network-fueled sales and precursor chemicals from China. The amount of drugs flooding communities nationwide has become alarming, according to U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), James Risch (R-ID), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“Illicit drugs like counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl are not only getting into the hands of adults but also to the most vulnerable members in our communities, our children,” the senators wrote. “We are writing to request information detailing what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is doing to stop drug networks and cartels from overflowing our communities with illicit narcotics.”

Specifically, by Aug. 31, 2022, they requested Milgrim inform them of the DEA’s cooperative efforts with local and state law enforcement, initiatives taken to arrest cartel members running drug operations inside the U.S., efforts to seize precursor chemicals shipped from China, work to help social media platforms prevent sales of illicit narcotics and more.

They went on to cite some of the known examples of narcotics trafficking throughout the country, from the seizure of enough fentanyl to kill around 19,000 people in North Carolina to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation that resulted in the arrest of a drug smuggler in California with approximately 250 lbs of fentanyl-laced pills. The quantities, they noted, were evidence of larger-scale operations at work.