The Trump administration announced Monday that seizures of illegal narcotics in Indian Country doubled last year as part of the administration’s effort to combat the opioid crisis.
The Interior Department’s Joint Opioid Reduction Task Force said that its 14 operations in seven states in 2019 resulted in the confiscation of 2,607 pounds of illegal narcotics with an estimated street value of $19.6 million.
That was “more than double the price tag from the previous year,” the department said in a press release.
“Our Bureau of Indian Affairs officers successfully stopped thousands of pounds of deadly narcotics from reaching tribal communities last year, and they continue to serve with distinction every day,” Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt said in a statement. “In a time when people are calling to defund the police, the Trump Administration is doing more to protect our citizens from illicit drugs and violence.”
The opioid crisis has been particularly pernicious in Indian Country. The Centers for Disease Control reported that “American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest drug overdose death rates in 2015, compared to other racial and ethnic groups.”
In October 2017, President Trump declared a public emergency over the opioid epidemic, which kills about 70,000 Americans each year, and launched the Stop Opioid Abuse campaign in 2018.
Tara Sweeney, Interior assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, said that the task force’s efforts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs “serve tribal self-determination by helping tribal governments protect their sovereignty from being undermined by criminal enterprises.”
In its first year, the task force conducted 15 operations in seven states, leading to 372 arrests and the confiscation of 3,287 pounds of illegal narcotics valued at $9.8 million.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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