United States Drug Enforcement Administration

In April 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division (PFD) Intelligence Program conducted an analysis of drug availability and abuse for the State of Delaware. Delaware is home to 935,000 people in three counties: New Castle (including the city of Wilmington), Kent, and Sussex.1 The primary drug threats to Delaware are heroin and diverted prescription opioids, as measured through information regarding drug availability, seizures, treatment admissions, and drug-related overdose deaths. In 2014, Wilmington ranked third on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual list of the most violent cities of comparable size, and it ranked fifth in violent crime when compared to all cities with populations greater than 50,000.2 As a result, Wilmington was included in the Department of Justice’s Violence Reduction Network in 2014. In 2015, the Office of National Drug Control Policy designated New Castle County as part of the Philadelphia/Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).