DEA announces launch of Project Safeguard
NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release
DEA announces launch of Project Safeguard
Operation intensifies DEA’s efforts to combat drug-related violent crime
WASHINGTON – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea today announced that the DEA will direct resources to help reduce violent crime in communities throughout the country. Under this initiative, called Project Safeguard, DEA will identify and prioritize ongoing drug trafficking investigations with a nexus to violent crime.
“Drug trafficking and violent crime are inextricably linked,” said Acting Administrator Shea. “From the extreme levels of violence in Mexican cartels, to the open air drug markets in American cities, drug traffickers employ violence, fear, and intimidation to ply their trade. Neighborhoods across our country are terrorized by violent drug trafficking organizations that have little regard for human life, and profit from the pain and suffering of our people. Along with our law enforcement partners, DEA is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of our communities.”
“The DEA Philadelphia Field Division’s longstanding partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement allow us to work together in combating violent crime, specifically drug-related shootings and homicides, plaguing major cities in Pennsylvania and Delaware,” said Jonathan A. Wilson, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s Philadelphia Field Division. “Gun violence, often linked to drug trafficking organizations, requires an aggressive response by law enforcement. The DEA and our law enforcement partners continue to work jointly to leverage all available resources in investigating violent, drug-trafficking offenders.”
Since it began in August 2020, Project Safeguard has resulted in 66 arrests and the seizure of 64 firearms, more than 15 kilograms of illicit drugs, and $1,088,656 across the DEA Philadelphia Field Division.
Working in collaboration with our federal, state, and local partners, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Marshals Service, DEA’s Project Safeguard will comprise three focus areas to address the growing violent crime threat in many cities across the United States:
- Disrupting, dismantling, and destroying the most significant violent drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States;
- Increasing collaboration with ATF to ensure effective federal prosecution of firearms traffickers associated with drug trafficking organizations; and
- Prioritizing the capture of DEA fugitives who employ violence as part of drug trafficking.
The traffickers that flood our communities with deadly drugs, including opioids, heroin, fentanyl, meth and cocaine, are often the same criminals responsible for the high rates of assault, murder, and gang activity in our cities. These criminals employ fear, violence, and intimidation to traffic drugs, and in doing so, exacerbate a drug crisis that claims more than 70,000 American lives every year. DEA is committed to treating these crimes as homicides, where appropriate.
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