The Fentanyl Free America Strategy and the Fight to Save Lives

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, drugs in America? Can America become drug free? With us today is Frank Tarantino and he has been promoted to Associate Chief of Operation put A Drug Enforcement Agency. And Frank Tarantino, congratulations again. Give us an update what’s going on in the Northeast region, especially New York and well, you know, can we ever dream of a drug free America?

0:33 Speaker 2 Well, John, first, thank you. It’s always a pleasure to join you and be on your show, and thank you for the work that you do promoting the amazing work the men and women of the Drug Enforced Administration do every day. And yes, that is in alignment with our strategy from our administrator, which is a fentantal free America.

0:53 So what the Administrator has set forth with our administration, with our agency is this fentantal Free of America strategy, which is in a wavering commitment to essentially protect the United States from synthetic opioids. And we’re doing that by disrupting the entire fenttal supply chain, reducing the availability of fentanyl that’s coming into the United States, specifically here in

1:15 New York City and throughout the Northeast region and then ideally to save American lives every single day, and that’s the EAGE mission. So what we’ve seen John in recent weeks and months is a significant and deliberate surge of operations across the United States by the Drugonforce Administration and in the Northeast region. In a month during Fentanyl Free

1:40 America Operation Phase two, we saw seventy five kilograms of fentanyl seas just in New York City, about one hundred and ninety kilograms across the Northeast region. That’s four million potential lethal doses of fentanyl removed from our communities throughout the Northeast, but again, more specifically about two million potential lethal doses sees from New York City, which is pretty tremendous.

2:07 Down in Philadelphia, we had fifty five nearly fifty five guns sees from our city street, which is again an incredible task and also keeping Philadelphia citizens the community safe. And then in New England, we had two hundred and seventy eight arrests, and those arrests are dealers, street level dealers, wholesale distributors, facilitators, organizers, people that are involved in the

2:35 illicit drug trade that is killing Americans. And that’s the focus of the Drug Enforced Administration right now, and that is to remove as much fentanyl from our streets as humanly possible. And that’s what the Fentanyl Free America operation is all about. And we’ve had significant success in that front, and that’s what President Trump is allowing us to do.

2:57 He’s really focused our efforts is ensuring that they use the full weight of the federal government and that it’s focus and coordinated and am mobilized and controlled way to attack fentinol. And that’s why you saw the Hall Centinal Act and acted into law, and then now more recently, the Weapons of Mass Destruction. That designation significantly assists us

3:25 in targeting these cartels, these foreign terrorist organizations, and these other foreign actors that are impacting the United States and killing Americans.

3:35 Speaker 1 Now, let me ask you about drugs in America. If you add up all the drugs when you act, you add up all the people taking them, what percentage of the American people do you think take drugs of one kind or another?

3:56 Speaker 2 Well, John, you know that’s that’s a difficult question to answer. There is a significant demand here in the United States, which is why the supply is so I think widespread across the entire country, and this is what our efforts are designed to do, is to disrupt that entire supply chain.

4:19 But what we see is these synthetic drugs are so powerful and so highly addicting that more and more Americans are becoming substance ute dependent and that’s what’s really fueling this opioid epidemic. So thea’s focus is to remove as much of that centenol and other synthetic drugs from our city streets, which is really what our community cares about

4:44 the most and what the American citizens deserve. And that’s why when you hear about a four year old in Brooklyn back in March of twenty twenty five overdosing and dying in his home, that’s why every American should be absolutely outraged and concerned about this threat. And it’s through the efforts of the NYPD, obviously, the DEBA, the New

5:08 York Task Force Division more specifically going out and responding to that scene and processing it in a responsible an investigative way, securing that evidence and then being able to bring that to the southern disc of New York and prosecuting the people responsible for killing that four year old, and that’s what the Drug Enforcement Administration is all about,

5:30 protecting our communities, holding people accountable, and saving American lives. And that’s unfortunately what we continue to see play out. Even after Nicholas Dominici’s death you back in twenty twenty three, as tragic as that was, we still haven’t learned enough about that. They keep repeating itself. And now we have a four year old that died and we had to

5:55 arrest family members and charge these suppliers for the death resulting in that in that death, and that’s tragic.

6:04 Speaker 1 Let me ask you a question, Uh, if there was a problem last week in the El Paso airport, are you familiar with that problem at all?

6:14 Speaker 2 Only would I read in the news, John, I’m not familiar in terms of like the operational uh or administrative issues that that.

6:22 Speaker 1 They were threatened. The story is I read in the newspaper, same newspapers you probably read, were that the Cortels were possibly uh and uh threatening L Paso Airport with drones. But I guess we’ll find out when we find out.

6:41 Speaker 2 Well, John, there is absolute certainty in the fact that the cartels are modernizing and using technology to their advantage. They’ve weaponized social media, and we know that they’re using drones to move parcels across the border, and they’ve used drones to conduct survan on the and around the border.

7:02 So we know that the cartels are using different systems, different technologies, different resources to fuel their drug trade. And this is what the Drug Enforced Administration, all of our partners are focused on right now.

7:18 Speaker 1 Understood, anything else you want to tell you the American people on a Sunday morning, just I.

7:25 Speaker 2 Would remind them that illicit drug use is what is most concerning. It’s the number one cause of death among Americans ages eighteen to forty four. It’s what is the number one cause of death more than more vehicle accidents, more than gun violence, and more than suicides. And this is what we want to try to educate and prevent

7:51 from happening every single day, and that is these overdose deaths. And so that’s the work that we’re doing with all of our partners, targeting these cartels, targeting these foreign terrorist organizations, holding them accountable, and removing this poison from our city streets.

8:06 That’s what Fentanonal Free America is all about. It’s creating a safer healthier and more secure pentanal free America. I think our children are worth fighting for, I think our communities are worth fighting for, and certainly our future is worth fighting for. And that’s what Fentony Free America is all about.

8:25 Speaker 1 Frank Tarantino, thank you so much for everything you do for America, and let’s catch up again real soon.

8:32 Speaker 2 Thank you, John