The U.S. Justice Department
released the below information:
Continuing to follow
President Trump’s strong leadership on combatting the deadly opioid crisis,
Attorney General Sessions today announced new resources and stepped up efforts
to address the drug and opioid crisis.
Joined by Acting DEA
Administrator Robert Patterson, Attorney General Sessions announced the
following efforts during a press conference at the Department of Justice: over
$12 million in grant funding to assist law enforcement in combating illegal
manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription
opioids; the establishment of a new DEA Field Division in Louisville, Kentucky,
which will include Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, a move meant to
better align DEA enforcement efforts within the Appalachian mountain region;
and a directive to all U.S. Attorneys to designate an Opioid Coordinator to
work closely with prosecutors, and with other federal, state, tribal, and local
law enforcement to coordinate and optimize federal opioid prosecutions in every
district.
“Today we are facing the
worst drug crisis in American history, with one American dying of a drug
overdose every nine minutes,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “That’s why, under President Trump’s strong
leadership, the Department of Justice has been taking action to make our drug
law enforcement efforts more effective. Today we announce three new initiatives
to do just that. First, we will invest
$12 million in funding for our state and local law enforcement partners to take
heroin and methamphetamine off of our streets. Second, we will restructure
DEA's Field Divisions for the first time in nearly 20 years. Third, we will
require all of our federal prosecutors' offices to designate an Opioid
Coordinator who will customize our anti-opioid strategy in every district in
America. These steps will make our law enforcement efforts smarter and more
effective—and ultimately they will save American lives."
“DEA continually looks for
ways to improve operations and interagency cooperation and more efficiently
leverage resources,” said Acting DEA Administrator Robert W. Patterson. “By
creating a new division in the region, this restructuring places DEA in
lockstep with our partners in the area to do just that. This change will produce
more effective investigations on heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid
trafficking, all of which have a significant impact on the region.”
COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force
Grants and Anti-Meth Program
The Community Oriented
Policing Services (COPS) Office is awarding a total of $7.19 million in FY 2017
funding through the Anti-Heroin Task Force Program (AHTF). AHTF provides two years of funding directly
to law enforcement agencies in states with high per capita levels of primary
treatment admissions for heroin and other opioids. This funding will support
the location or investigation of illicit activities related to the distribution
of heroin or the unlawful distribution of prescription opioids.
The COPS Office will also
award a total of $5.03 million in FY 2017 funding through the COPS
Anti-Methamphetamine Program (CAMP). The
state agencies receiving funding today have demonstrated numerous seizures of
precursor chemicals, finished methamphetamine, laboratories, and laboratory
dump seizures. State agencies will be awarded two years of funding through CAMP
to support the investigation of illicit activities related to the manufacture
and distribution of methamphetamine.
The complete list of
Anti-Heroin Task Force Program (AHTF) award recipients, including funding
amounts, can be found here.
The complete list of COPS
Anti-Methamphetamine Program (CAMP) award recipients, including funding
amounts, can be found here.
Establishment of DEA
Louisville Field Division
The DEA will establish the
Louisville Field Division – its 22nd division office in the United States – on
Jan. 1, 2018. It will include Kentucky,
Tennessee, and West Virginia. This
action converts the existing Louisville District Office into a field division
in an effort to enhance DEA enforcement efforts within the Appalachian mountain
region and unify drug trafficking investigations under a single Special Agent
in Charge. DEA anticipates that this
change will produce more effective investigations on heroin, fentanyl and
prescription opioid trafficking, all of which have a significant impact on the
region. The division will also better
align DEA with the U.S. Attorney’s Office districts in those areas, similar to
current ATF and FBI offices, and also to the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Areas (HIDTA) Program.
The Louisville Division will
be led by Special Agent in Charge D. Christopher Evans, who comes from the
Detroit Field Division where he served as Associate Special Agent in Charge.
Designation of Opioid
Coordinators
Every U.S. Attorney will
designate an Opioid Coordinator by the close of business on Dec. 15, 2017. Each
USAO Opioid Coordinator will be responsible for facilitating intake of cases
involving prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl; convening a task force of federal, state,
local, and tribal law enforcement to identify opioid cases for federal
prosecution, facilitate interdiction efforts, and tailor their district’s
response to the needs of the community it serves; providing legal advice and
training to AUSAs regarding the prosecution of opioid offenses; maintaining
statistics on the opioid prosecutions in
the district; and developing and continually evaluating the
effectiveness of the office’s strategy to combat the opioid
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