EAGLE PASS, Texas — According to a source within the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has all but abandoned its offices in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. Only one special agent is working in one border office, and a local police task force officer is working in the other. The situation, according to the source, leaves just one DEA agent working a few days per week along the Texas border between El Paso and Laredo.
The 604-mile stretch of United States/Mexico border between El Paso and Laredo is designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) under a program created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Traditionally, according to the source, the DEA has spearheaded law enforcement task forces in both cities, responding to drug seizures made by the Border Patrol and other local and state authorities.
According to the source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, the DEA offices, now mostly empty, are no longer able to provide investigative and criminal prosecution services due to attrition and personnel reassignments by the federal narcotics agency.
Now, according to the source, all that remains in one of the two border towns is a local law enforcement officer designated to keep the lights on at the all-but-abandoned DEA office in Del Rio. Only one special agent remains in Eagle Pass, working less than a full work week at times. As of 2024, the agency employs more than 10,000 people, nearly half of whom are special agents. Breitbart Texas visited the Eagle Pass DEA office during normal business hours and found the facility nearly empty.
As the offices sit idle, fentanyl seizures across the United States and along the southwest border continue to rise. According to the DEA, the agency seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. These seizures are equivalent to more than 390 million lethal doses of fentanyl, according to DEA. The current 2024 fentanyl seizures represent 254 million deadly doses.
The Eagle Pass/Del Rio portions of the South Texas HIDTA serve as a major transportation hub to San Antonio and beyond. According to CBP, border fentanyl seizures have increased more than 860 percent between 2019 and 2023. Synthetic drugs like fentanyl kill more than 150 Americans every day according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The source says it makes little sense to practically abandon the border region where much of the fentanyl originates.
“Rank and file law enforcement officers will still be out trying to get this off our streets, but it sends a message that the federal agency primarily tasked with a national drug enforcement strategy doesn’t care enough to stick around the border,” the source emphasized.
In the case of narcotic seizures made by the Border Patrol, the source says an existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) gives the DEA the first right of refusal to accept a case for investigation and prosecution. Local police and sheriff offices also rely on DEA to assist with investigating and prosecuting larger narcotics seizures. The interdicting agencies along the border rely on DEA special agents to perform link analysis and trace the narcotics back to the corresponding cartel responsible for sending the drug shipments across the border.
Without the special agents present to interview and develop the narcotics cases firsthand, the source says the local agencies will rely on themselves to carry out this task under the auspices of DEA’s authority as task force members.
“It’s like the small town where the mayor is the fire chief, postmaster, and sheriff; we’ll wear the DEA hat as task force members, but there won’t be a DEA special agent anywhere near the action in these two border towns unless things change,” the source told Breitbart Texas.
According to a recent ABC News report, other locations outside the United States have seen their staffing levels decreased. The agency shuttered two offices in China as it continues to struggle to prevent the precursor fentanyl chemicals from reaching the hands of Mexican drug cartel operatives. According to the report, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, appointed by President Biden in 2021, communicated the closure of a dozen offices worldwide saying, “These closings reflect the need to harness DEA’s limited and strained resources to target where we can make the biggest impact in saving American lives.”
It is not known whether the severe staffing shortages facing the border offices in Texas are related to planned downsizing or simply unchecked attrition. A request for information from the DEA and its parent agency, the Department of Justice, remains unanswered as of press time.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
