DEA Unveils Initiative to Target Criminal Drug Operations

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Monday unveiled a new initiative aimed at combatting rising rates of drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths.

Operation Overdrive, which officially launched Feb. 1, is designed to dismantle criminal drug networks in areas with high rates of violence and overdoses, as identified using national crime statistics and overdose data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DEA is working in partnership with fellow federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, with operations in 34 locations across 23 states in the first phase of Operation Overdrive.

In its most recent projects, CDC reported more than 101,000 overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in June 2021, a record. Homicides, meanwhile, increased 30% year-over-year in 2020, with 77% of US homicides being committed with a firearm.

In addition to being engaged in gun violence, identified criminal drug networks being targeted by the operation are selling fentanyl or methamphetamine.

“DEA’s objective is clear,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a news release. “DEA will bring all it has to bear to make our communities safer and healthier, and to reverse the devastating trends of drug-related violence and overdoses plaguing our nation. The gravity of these threats requires a data-driven approach to pinpoint the most dangerous networks threatening our communities, and leveraging our strongest levers across federal, state, and local partners to bring them down.”

Reference

DEA launches new initiative to combat drug-related violence and overdoses in communities across America. News release. Drug Enforcement Administration; February 7, 2022. Accessed February 7, 2022.