St. Louis and Kansas City Part of DEA Initiative to Combat Drug-Related Violence and Overdo
As part of DEA’s core mission to keep communities safe and healthy, the first phase of ‘Operation Overdrive’ is launching in 34 locations across 23 states
ST. LOUIS – The Drug Enforcement Administration announced Operation Overdrive, a new initiative aimed at combatting the rising rates of drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths plaguing American communities. Both St. Louis and Kansas City are among the 34 locations across 23 states where DEA efforts will be focused.
Operation Overdrive, which launched Feb. 1, uses a data-driven, intelligence-led approach to identify and dismantle criminal drug networks operating in areas with the highest rates of violence and overdoses. DEA, working in partnership with its fellow federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, has mapped the threats and initiated enforcement operations against those networks in the initial phase of Operation Overdrive.
DEA initiated a data-driven approach using national crime statistics and CDC data last fall to identify hot spots of drug-related violence and overdose deaths across the country, in order to devote its law enforcement resources to where they will have the most impact: the communities where criminal drug networks are causing the most harm.
Today, the United States faces an unprecedented overdose epidemic claiming 275 lives every day. Violence, often associated with drug-related activity, is also rising sharply nationwide: in 2020, homicides increased a record 30 percent, and 77 percent of the murders in the United States were committed with a firearm. In 2021, DEA and its law enforcement partners seized more than 8,700 firearms connected to investigations of drug trafficking organizations.
Operation Overdrive revealed alarming trends about the networks that DEA has mapped. The vast majority of identified criminal drug networks are engaged in gun violence. A majority of identified criminal drug networks sell fentanyl or methamphetamine, and almost all of the identified criminal drug networks that sell those deadly synthetic drugs are also engaged in violent gun crimes.
DEA St. Louis Division, which includes the state of Missouri, seized 317 firearms in fiscal year 2021. DEA St. Louis Division investigators also seized record amounts of both methamphetamine (2,097 kilograms) and fentanyl (180 kilograms).
Overdose rates continue to rise in Missouri as well. According to the CDC, provisional drug overdose deaths for the year ending June 2021 were estimated at 2,043.
In addition to St. Louis and Kansas City, Operation Overdrive locations are:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Bronx, New York
- Buffalo, New York
- Camden, New Jersey
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Columbia, South Carolina
- Dayton, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Flint, Michigan
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Miami, Florida
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Newark, New Jersey
- Oakland, California
- Peoria, Illinois
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Pine Bluff, Arkansas
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Richmond, Virginia
- San Bernardino, California
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Washington, D.C.
- Wilmington, Delaware
