The Drug Enforcement Administration announced Tuesday it will send an additional 250 task force officers and a few dozen analysts to regions across the country that have been most affected by the opioid epidemic.
DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson said the reinforcements will strengthen agents already in cities that have been hardest hit by heroin and fentanyl addiction.
“Positioning more robust resources such as task force officers in areas hardest hit by this epidemic will provide the strength and support needed to tackle this crisis in regions that need it most,” Patterson said in a statement.
The task force will take on the drug trafficking organizations bringing narcotics into the country, which it said the DEA has made a name for itself in the federal government for being the “most essential and effective partners in building cases against drug trafficking organizations across the globe.”
On Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the use of a new technology that can detect more than 14,000 chemicals had been rolled out at Detroit’s international airport in an effort to stop dangerous opioids from entering the country.
The new technology will allow CBP officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport to test substances found in foreign mail and other imported goods and be alerted immediately if a package contains regulated or illegal drugs.
Officials hope Gemini, a handheld elemental isotype analysis tool, can help flag packages of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is exported to the U.S. mainly from China. Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than heroin and has contributed to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., which kills an average of 115 Americans every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last week, ICE held a major training session of Ohio and Michigan law enforcement officers on “Dark Net” and virtual currencies, which drug traffickers use to accept payment for heroin and fentanyl. That number is more than half of the 800 investigators ICE had trained since October, when President Trump signed an executive order in October that made federal assistance available at the state and local level.
ICE plans to train a total of 1,500 investigators by Sept. 30. Its focus on illicit payment networks teaches law enforcement the backside of the drug cartel business.
