Author Brad Heath
Washington (Reuters) -The number of people accused of violations of federal drug laws in recent decades after Trump’s administration has indicated enforcement agencies to focus on immigrant deportation, and nearly 2 million federal courts have been reviewed.
Until now, this year, about 10% of people have been prosecuted for drug violations compared to the same 2024. During the period, the court records, the decrease in about 1,200 cases and the slowest rate since the end of the 1990s. The retreat was more dramatic due to the types of conspiracy and money laundering, often used to chase higher -level merchants. Based on the analysis of Reuters, the number of people accused of washing decreased by 24%.
Shortly after January Donald Trump, US President Donald Trump, took over the widest major overhaul of law enforcement since 2001. September 11th. Attacks. He ordered thousands of federal agents to focus on what he described as “invasion of illegal immigration.”
The shift has slowed down from the shore to the shore, when the government has long been holding the main criminal networks, including drug cartels with more than 80,000 people last year, and agents focused on fast immigration raids, interviews and court documents.
“We see that long-term studies are less time, so agents can go out on their raid and be seen in support of immigration raids,” said a senior justice official, who is involved in the investigation, who, like others, asked to be not determined by the subject’s sensitivity.
Despite the brief promises to follow a stricter approach to drug execution, even a high priority case has stopped, four officers who familiar with the cases told Reuters. One prosecutor said the Fentanil investigation he oversaw was suspended because the leadership agents were told to focus on deportations. Another officer stated that drug rings were delayed.
Representative of the White House, Abigail Jackson, said Trump’s “very successful effort to close the border and eliminate dangerous criminal illegal foreigners from our communities, as well as prosecuted for violent drug traffickers and directing international cartels, means less illegal drugs in American communities.”
“The focus on tax number does not exactly reflect the great work of our lawyers to be responsible for the most serious criminals,” said Natalie Baldassarre, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. She said the efforts to seek organized crime were long -term and that “our focus was focused on international drug cartels, prosecuted for violent drug traffickers” and helping immigration.
Drug persecution in the historic lowlands
To evaluate the impact of new law enforcement orders, Reuters has collected docks for each publicly available case federal court since 1998. From Westlaw, the Internet Legal Investigation Service, which is the Thomson Reuters section. Reuters compared the files filed as of January 1st. By September 15, the number with the same period of the previous year.
In some cases, Reuters used artificial intelligence to classify the accusations people face. An overview of a random record set showed that the methodology is 98% accurate.
Reuters also interviewed more than 15 current and former law enforcement officials who almost everyone talked to an anonymity to discuss domestic deliberations or fear of revenge. Together, they have offered the most detailed view of Trump’s overhaul.
Their accounts indicate that the drug execution has been reduced at almost every stage. Researchers are slower to create new cases and less can work with existing ones. Sources argued that prosecutors also focused on criminal immigration laws, leaving less time to deal with other cases.
Although from 2023 In the United States, the deaths of overdose, at least in part, the widespread availability of antidote naloxone overdose, and little signs that drug trafficking itself dried out. The total amount of drugs confiscated in the US has so far increased by approximately 6% this year than last year.
However, according to the court’s data, the number of people accused of importing drugs to the US import into the United States has fallen to the lowest point this year in at least 25 years. The number of people accused of drug conspiracy decreased by about 15%.
The impact of so many agents’ direction has exceeded drugs: prosecution for violating laws prohibiting criminals and others to have weapons, or their use during drug crimes decreased by about 5%this year.
It is likely that weapons trays will be reduced, as openings now may not reach the courtroom years or more years. With so many agents, “will have a huge impact,” said Jeff Cohen, who was the chief lawyer for US alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives, responsible for the execution of weapons laws before retiring in July.
“You cannot do careful drug tests of various agencies if you are doing this other thing,” said a former US drug execution administration officer who overseen his transition to immigration.
The change was dramatic: for the first time in decades, almost half of the people accused of federal crimes this year have been accused of immigration violations, the court’s dock says. These records show that about 700 federal prosecutors were appointed to work at least some of the immigration, more than one in 10 prosecutors.
Directed agents, new priorities
Trump’s administration has repeatedly promised to follow a stricter approach to drug execution. Trump often offered drug dealers that the death penalty should be applied. Prosecutor General Pam Bondi said this year that all drug traders are a “violent offender and we will be prosecuted.”
This month, the administration raised these efforts when Trump told the army to destroy two suspected drug smuggling boats on the shores of Venezuela, killing their crews. In the past, the authorities would have suspended the boat and accused the crews smuggling. Venezuela denies they were drug traffickers.
At the same time, the administration ordered the closure of the DOJ organized crime drug execution working group – the office, which manages the most complex cases of organized crime by the end of the month.
The prosecution of drug and weapons – priority during Trump’s first term – began to fall with former President Joe Biden when officials said they were fighting lawyers, as well as trying to focus on more complex investigations. However, this year after the Trump returned to office, they reached the new lowland in almost every category, as Dea has passed a quarter of their resources to immigration.
The redemption and purification of short perceived political opponents have interrupted the ranks of some execution agencies. Next year, the administration offered more budget reduction to federal law enforcement.
Trump’s departments at the Department of Justice told officials from almost first day that practically everything would take the back to the immigration, two former officials said.
Now, agents whose work has almost had nothing to do with immigration until this year, every day loves to help us with immigration and customs execution teams to detain people who can be deported.
This work was originally concentrated on immigrants with great convictions, but former DEA and ATF officials said agents were increasingly expressing frustration that they were pulled out of their cases to continue people who did not commit crimes. As most federal agents are still not well -versed in immigration laws, they spend most of their time on the periphery, managing transport or maintaining society, former officials said.
“Cases just freeze”
Those dislocations made another request from his superiors: the photos. The former ATF agent, after supervising some of the immigration details, said he was told to receive photos showing jackets or body armor with agency logo because managers thought the White House wanted their social media. And the agencies themselves posted many photos showing their agents involved in immigration raids.
The impact, according to the former ATF agent, is “many good cases as soon as some of the photographs of the photographs are freezing.”
ATF and DEA did not answer questions about agents’ attention to immigration work.
These compromises were placed as agents were involved in other missions. This summer, a short obligated hundreds of federal agents to patrol in Washington, DC, to fight what he described as a crisis of violent crimes in the capital. Trump said he would deploy even more agents in Chicago, Memphis and perhaps in other larger cities.
In Washington, police reports show that the Dea and ATF agents began patroling their feet along with local police officers in search of daily violations such as people drinking alcohol in public. In one case, Dea agents participated in an operation where officers sent hidden $ 25 marijuana, the police said in a statement. In Washington, having small quantities of marijuana is legal, but it is not for sale. The authorities have accused two men for improper crime of drug crimes in the city’s place in court.
(Editing Michael Learmonth)