DEA Launches New Initiative to Combat Drug-Related Violence and Overdoses in 34 U.S. Cities, including Chicago
As part of DEA’s core mission to keep communities safe and healthy, the first phase of ‘Operation Overdrive’ is launching in 34 locations across 23 states
CHICAGO – The Drug Enforcement Administration announced a new initiative, Operation Overdrive, aimed at combatting the rising rates of drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths plaguing American communities.
Last fall, the DEA initiated a data-driven approach using national crime statistics and CDC data to identify hot spots of drug-related violence and overdose deaths across the country. These threats revealed alarming trends about the criminal drug networks’ activity in those targeted locations. The vast majority of those networks sell fentanyl or methamphetamine and are engaged in violent gun crimes.
On Feb. 1, 2022, the DEA launched Operation Overdrive to identify and dismantle criminal drug networks operating in areas statistically identified as having the highest rates of violent crime and drug overdoses. DEA, working in partnership with its fellow federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, has mapped the threats and initiated enforcement operations against those networks in 34 locations across 23 states in the initial phase of Operation Overdrive.
Today, the United States faces an unprecedented overdose crisis claiming 275 lives every day. Violence, often associated with drug-related activity, is also sharply rising nationwide. In 2020, homicides increased a record 30 percent and 77% of the murders in the United States were committed with a firearm. In 2021, the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized more than 8,700 firearms connected to investigations of drug trafficking organizations.
“DEA’s objective is clear,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “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.”
“There is a direct connection between overdose hotspots and areas where drug-related violent crime is high, including cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Peoria,” said Robert Bell, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Chicago Division. “Attacking the supply chain and its associated violence is key to preventing overdose deaths throughout the Chicago Field Division alongside our local, state and federal law enforcement partners.”
Operation Overdrive Phase I locations:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Bronx, New York
- Buffalo, New York
- Camden, New Jersey
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Columbia, South Carolina
- Dayton, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Flint, Michigan
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Miami, Florida
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Newark, New Jersey
- Oakland, California
- Peoria, Illinois
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Pine Bluff, Arkansas
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Richmond, Virginia
- San Bernardino, California
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Washington, D.C.
- Wilmington, Delaware
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