McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A new report has found a decrease in the prosecution of drug cases referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, the prosecution of drug-related cases referred by the DEA was down 6 percent from the previous fiscal year, and down by one-third from Fiscal 2019, during the Trump administration, according to a report by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse of Syracuse University.
The report, released Wednesday, found a 50% decrease in drug case referrals from the DEA in 20 years.
In Fiscal 2004, there were 18,132 drug-related case filings. In Fiscal 2019 there were 13,104 cases. And so far in Fiscal 2024, there have been 4,236 new prosecutions that resulted from cases referred by the DEA. If that rate continues, TRAC estimates the annual total of prosecutions for this fiscal year will be just over 8,700 — which would be the lowest since 1995, and the second-lowest rate since 1986 when drug data first began being tracked.
The DEA was founded in 1973 under President Richard Nixon, who had declared a federal “war on drugs.” But it wasn’t until 1986 that federal prosecutors adopted a system for more systematically tracking drug matters on a suspect-by-suspect basis.
TRAC data also found “a curious anomaly” starting after Fiscal 2019 when prosecutions continued falling and numbers declined by one-third. However, convictions actually increased. At one point in 2023, the number of convictions briefly surpassed the number of prosecutions filed.
TRAC suspects the data could be the result of a backlog of cases already filed that were resolved and led to higher conviction rates than prosecutions.
“The defendants sentenced in any year are not necessarily the same defendants in federal court cases that began that year. However, this increase was not explained by a shift in focus to meth and fentanyl offenses by the DEA, nor changes in overall conviction patterns,” the report said.
Rainbow fentanyl pills come in bright colors and are meant to look like candy, DEA officials said. (DEA/KLAS)
The COVID-19 pandemic and partial federal government shutdown starting in March 2020 did disrupt federal investigations and prosecutions, the report noted. And it has contributed to a backlog of cases.
The average federal drug case in Fiscal 2023 took 934 days — roughly two and a half years — from the time it was referred to a conviction issued, TRAC found. This is up significantly from the 635 days, or 1.7 years, that it took to complete a case with conviction in Fiscal 2019.
“The average number of days between the receipt of a DEA referral and determination of guilt or innocence of the defendant along with sentencing for those convicted, has shot up. Increased processing times were seen in most U.S. Attorney offices,” the report said.
An earlier TRAC report from May 2023 had noted a rise in the prosecution of cases related to methamphetamine and fentanyl at the time. In March 2023, 2,231 defendants were convicted of federal drug offenses — the largest recorded monthly total since March 2016,
From October 2022 through March 2023 an overwhelming number of drug-related convictions — 96.5% — were the result of guilty pleas, TRAC reported. The type of controlled substance targeted also had shifted to meth and fentanyl cases, with federal convictions for marijuana sharply down.
In the first half of Fiscal 2023, convictions for meth accounted for 46% of all convictions, followed by cocaine or heroin and then fentanyl.
But the past year there has been a push by the Biden administration and lawmakers to go after fentanyl distributors, including Mexican cartels south of the border that produce the deadly drugs using precursor chemicals supplied from China.
However, Mexican authorities don’t appear to be cooperating.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in January that fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 49.
Last week a House appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., prompted lawmakers to question Mexico’s commitment to stop the northern flow of the synthetic drug after it was learned that DEA agents are waiting up to eight months to get work visas from Mexico.
Several South Texas lawmakers earlier this year held talks in Mexico City to try to engage Mexican leaders to better stop drug flows.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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