New Federal Tactics Target Cartels

0:00 Speaker 1 Well with us today is Frank Tarantino from the Drug Enforcement Administration and he’s the Associate Chief of Operations for the Northeast Region, and the White House has given new tools that could be used to make Americans safer. Well, Frank Tarantino, so what do you say, what’s going on?

0:25 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John, and thanks for making time for us. You know, this is most importantly about putting America and Americans first. It’s about safeguarding our nation, it’s about protecting the homeland. So, as you know, we’re in the midst of one of the greatest drug threats and opioid crisis that we’ve ever faced in drug law enforcement. And it’s

0:46 perpetuated by the Mexican drug cartels, Chinese criminal groups, but also other criminal organizations that span the Western hemisphere, in particular Columbia drug organizations or criminal organizations. And so under this administration, they provided us with new tools and resources and capabilities to fight these threats and to number one, keep Americans safe and to safeguard our homeland. So when

1:15 we think about this drug threat, we have to understand that the Colombian drug trafficking organization’s influence about ninety six percent of the cocaine that comes into the United States of America. Back in twenty and twenty one, the Colombian National Police in the Colombian military arrested a high level drug trafficker and cartel leader by the name of Dario

1:44 Antonio Usuga David, otherwise known as Antoniel. He was the leader of the planned De Goulfo gang and he wielded strong influence and power throughout the Columbia region, specifically in the northwest part of Colombia. And he had about six thousand paramilitary members that would use violence, intimidation and military tactics to essentially move their cocaine through the borders of

2:24 Colombia and Panama and then into Mexico and eventually into the United States. And so when he was arrested, he was eventually extra died in twenty twenty two to New York where he eventually pled guilty in January of twenty three, and then he was sentenced later in August of twenty twenty three to forty five years in prison and fined

2:46 two hundred and sixteen million dollars. So a great success for DEA for our federal partners, but more importantly around that same time, this other individual by the name of Joe honest to Hsu Savilla Villa Diego or Taquito Malo, he rose to the leadership role of the Clandegulfho and again around that same time, President Trump, with his leadership

3:16 guidance and direction, the United States Secretary of State designated the Clandegulfho gang in December of twenty twenty five as a foreign terrorist organization. And that is in part section two nineteen of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That is what allows us to go after the Clandegulfo and its associates as a foreign terrorist organization. And so that designation,

3:47 along with the what we call especially designated global terrorists, again under the executive order of the President, which is a powerful tool, is why we indicted Tiquito Malo last week in April of twenty twenty six. And so what this demonstrates is that these high level leaders in Columbia, Mexico, or anywhere else in the world, that hide behind their armies,

4:18 that hide behind their cartels, that hide behind the millions and millions of dollars that they make off of the victims of the United States cannot escape justice and So this indictment represents a new charge, the title twenty one USC.

4:36 Nine to sixty eight narco terrorist charge and also the title eighteen USC. Twenty three thirty nine B charge, which is the material support to a foreign terrorist organization. So again the trumpet, yep.

4:50 Speaker 1 You guys have made significant progress in going against these cartels. What mistakes did the cartels make or what will you allowed by the White House to do to do your job better? Well?

5:09 Speaker 2 Again, John, the White House, the President, his leadership, the United States, Sexy State designating the six cartels in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations, the two most dominant, the Sinaloa and He least Go cartels again is a very powerful tool that we can utilize as a whole government approach with our Department of War and intelligence counterparts to go

5:34 after these cartels in a way we’ve never been able to go after him before. And I think this is also a great example of the Homeland Security task forces coming together as the whole government commitment to hold these cartels accountable. And so we’ve done incredible work in a very short period of time seizing a lot of their

5:55 illicit poison that’s coming into the United States. But also we’ve seed a lot of their ill gotten gains, their money that is flowing back into Mexico and also into China, which which again recycles the precursive chemicals that go into Mexico.

6:13 Speaker 1 Have you seen significant drop of sales in two children and too people in our states after all these cotails were say busted.

6:30 Speaker 2 Well, John, Yes, we have seen a decline in the availability of fentanyl on our city streets. We have seen a decline in the purity of fentanyl on our city streets, and that has had an immeasurable effect on the safety and security of this country. We’ve seen a twenty five percent drop in overdose deaths and poisonings. We’ve seen the

6:51 lethality in the pills drop to twenty nine percent out of every ten pills that we test in our laboratory. So we’re seeing progress. And this is a direct result of the administration giving us the tools, the resources and empowering us to go out and do our job. And it’s also a great credit to our administrator, Administrator Cole

7:13 and he has really focused the entire agency, the global agency, on enforcement and again on protecting Americans.

7:21 Speaker 1 By doing all of this and by doing what we did with Venezuela, with the cartels there in the in the in the boats that were coming in from Venezuela, and what we did with Mexico. How many lives do you estimate we’ve saved or we’re going to save a year now?

7:40 Speaker 2 Well, John, we’re saving tens of thousands of lives, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. When you look at we went from you know, at the peak one hundred and twelve three hundred and twenty three Americans who died in a twelve month period ending in August of twenty twenty three to eighty four thousand, and it’s dropping even even

8:00 lower than that. We are down in the sixty thousand range now, so we’ve nearly half the number of overdose deests and poisonings. But also by removing the source of supplies, by removing the facilitators, the brokers, the money launderers, and then removing the actual poison from our streets, we’re saving lives.

8:19 It’s countless lives.

8:21 Speaker 1 Well, that is wonderful news. And I want to thank you for the jobs you’re doing and for the entire Drug Enforcement administration and the President that has empowered you to do these things. And how could I say thank you for all Americans?

8:40 Speaker 2 Well, thank you John. The support that we’re getting from the White House, from our administrator, and from the public has been tremendous, and that is what gives us the energy and the encouragement to go out and to continue to do this difficult work. But it’s again to save American lives and to keep America safe.

9:02 Speaker 1 Well, thank you so much for saving all those lives. And we’ll catch up again real soon.

9:07 Speaker 2 Thank you, John.