Thank you, Kurt for that kind introduction. Thank you for your seven years of service to
the Department of Justice and for your leadership now as United States
Attorney.
I want to thank Lenette for hosting us here today. And thank you for all of the work that you do
to help people walk the difficult road to recovery. And thank you to the other compassionate
treatment providers who are here.
It is an honor to be with you all. I am here today to discuss some of the
actions that the Department of Justice has taken to help end our nation’s drug
crisis—actions that I believe benefit us all.
But before I do that, I want to say thank you to everyone
here who helps us fight the drug epidemic—especially our fabulous law
enforcement officers.
I want to thank Tim McDermott of the DEA, Acting U.S.
Marshal Rod Ostermiller, Ian Blair with the Secret Service, Supervisory
Probation Officers Marty Hylland and Brian Farren, Steven Osborne of the IRS,
Greg Kosiarek with our Postal Inspectors, Michael Stewart of Customs and Border
Protection, Montana Chief Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion, and Colonel Tom
Butler of the Montana Highway Patrol.
Thank you for your service.
There can be no doubt that this is the deadliest drug crisis
in American history. Approximately 64,000
Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses in 2016 – the highest drug death
toll and the fastest increase in that death toll in American history.
That’s nearly the population of Missoula—dead in one year
from drug overdoses.
Preliminary data show another—but what appears to be a
smaller—increase for 2017. Amazingly,
for Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of
death.
We recognize that the drug crisis is taking a toll on our
Native American tribes. According to one
report, Native Americans had the highest drug overdose death rates in
2015. I know that Kurt and his team have
prosecuted a number of drug trafficking cases affecting Indian country here. I heard about Operation Glacier Melt, for
example. The U.S. Attorney’s Office,
FBI, IRS, BIA, and DEA formed Operation Glacier Melt, which was an OCDETF
operation around the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. In that operation alone, you put 22
defendants in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Here in the West, there is also the threat of
methamphetamine.
In 2016, more than 7,500 Americans lost their lives to a
methamphetamine overdose. And this
number is a sharp increase as well.
Most of our DEA agents in the West tell us that
methamphetamines are a bigger problem in their area than heroin is.
But both of these threats are growing. According to the Montana Department of
Justice, methamphetamine violations in this state rose by more than 400 percent
from 2010 to 2015. Meanwhile heroin
violations increased 1,500 percent.
These are not just numbers.
When we talk about drug abuse and addiction, we are talking about the
lives of moms, dads, daughters, spouses, friends, and neighbors. We are talking about the lives of fellow
Americans.
That includes Natalie Dietrich, a student at Montana State,
who was given a synthetic opioid at a concert in Bozeman. She was an economics student. She had a promising life ahead of her, but
now that is a future we will never see.
It includes Caden Fowler, from Hamilton, Montana, who was
found dead at home of an opioid overdose at just 16 years old. Caden’s mom Brandi is an outspoken advocate
who is working to prevent the spread of drug abuse, and I want to commend her
for that.
And we also remember the story of Kenzley Olson, of Poplar,
Montana. Kenzley was a 13-month old baby
who was sick with the flu. She wouldn’t
stop crying. The woman who was watching
her was high on methamphetamine and, in a fit of rage, beat her to death.
There are many stories like these—stories that are
heartbreaking.
But we are not going to accept the status quo. This is not business as usual.
Ending the drug crisis is a top priority for the Trump
administration.
President Trump has a comprehensive plan to end this
national public health emergency.
He wants to improve our prevention efforts by launching a
national awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid abuse. He has set the ambitious goal of reducing
opioid prescriptions in America by one-third in three years.
At the Department of Justice we embrace that goal. As a nation, we prescribe too many
opioids. In 2015, for every 10
Montanans, there were nine opioid prescriptions.
Tomorrow the DEA will hold its semiannual National Drug
Takeback Day. Last year’s two events
took more than 900 tons of potentially dangerous drugs off of our streets. And so I urge all Americans to participate in
the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day tomorrow.
For example, early last year DEA, Homeland Security, and
local law enforcement executed search warrants on the residence of an alleged
drug trafficker in Great Falls, Montana.
They seized numerous firearms, 15 pounds of methamphetamine, and nearly
$250,000 in cash. Now that trafficker
has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Back in August, DEA worked with state and local law
enforcement to seize 17 pounds of methamphetamine that was on its way to
Billings from the Southwest.
Just a week ago, DEA and Customs and Border Protection
agents seized more than 85 pounds of suspected methamphetamine that was
allegedly being trafficked by the Sinaloa Cartel.
But the number one killer drug in the United States as a
whole is fentanyl. Synthetic opioids
like fentanyl killed 20,000 Americans in 2016.
Most fentanyl doesn’t come from here. The vast majority of it is made in China and
then shipped here either through the mail or brought across our porous Southern
border.
Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin. It’s so strong that just a few grains—the
size of a pinch of salt—can be fatal.
That’s why this Department of Justice has had a special
focus on fentanyl, tripling fentanyl prosecutions from 2016 to 2017.
In October, the Department announced the first-ever
indictments of Chinese nationals for fentanyl trafficking in the United States.
And earlier today I announced the unsealing of two
indictments charging 10 additional defendants, including four Chinese nationals
and six defendants from the East Coast of the United States. In total, 32 defendants have been charged as
part of this law enforcement operation.
The defendants allegedly sold fentanyl and fentanyl
analogues in 11 states from coast to coast—from Oregon to Ohio to Florida.
They and their co-conspirators allegedly shipped fentanyl
and fentanyl analogues from China through the mail—and it killed people in
North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, and North Dakota.
While we have suffered the worst drug crisis in our history,
we’ve also seen violent crime on the rise.
I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
If you want to collect a drug debt, you collect it with the
barrel of a gun. As surely as night follows day, violence and death follow drug
trafficking.
From 1992 to 2014, crime declined in America. But from 2014
to 2016, however, the trends reversed.
The violent crime rate went up by nearly seven percent. Robberies went up. Assaults went up nearly 10 percent. Rape went up by nearly 11 percent. Murder increased by more than 20 percent.
Here in Montana, the violent crime rate went up nearly 14
percent; rape increased nearly five percent; aggravated assault increased
nearly 15 percent, and robbery increased by nearly 30 percent.
According to a Department of Justice study, nearly a quarter
of the increase in homicides is the result of the increase in drug-related
homicides.
That study’s findings are reaffirmed by what Kurt tells me,
that that methamphetamine trafficking is driving much of the crime here in
Montana.
Some people will tell you that law enforcement doesn’t make
much of a difference. They think that crime is like the tides, going up and
down and we just can’t do anything about it.
I utterly reject that view.
At the Department of Justice, we believe that through legal
reforms, more sophisticated policing strategies, and investment in our
officers, we can reduce crime in America.
The day I was sworn in as Attorney General, President Trump
sent me an Executive Order that directs us to reduce crime in America—not to
preside over ever-increasing levels of crime.
The centerpiece of our crime reduction strategy is a tested
and proven strategy called Project Safe Neighborhoods.
Here’s how it works.
First of all, I’ve ordered Kurt and our other United States Attorneys to
target and prioritize prosecutions on the most violent people in the most
violent areas.
Second, I’ve ordered them to engage with a wide variety of
stakeholders—from police chiefs to mayors to community groups and victims’
advocates—in order to identify the needs specific to their communities and
develop a customized violent crime reduction plan. This builds on another
executive order from the President – Back the Blue.
PSN provides a framework that can be adapted to the
situation on the ground in local communities across the country.
And, like I said, it has been proven to work. One study showed that, in its first seven
years, PSN reduced violent crime overall by 4.1 percent, with case studies
showing reductions in certain areas of up to 42 percent. There are Americans who are alive and well
today because this program made a difference. We’ve asked congress for $140
million for local grants to use for cooperative crime fighting initiatives.
I believe that it will work again—including right here in
Montana.
When we invest in our law officers and work with local
communities, we get results.
And so I want to close by reiterating my deep appreciation
and profound thanks to all the women and men of law enforcement – federal,
state, local, and tribal – as well as their families, for sacrificing so much
and putting your lives on the line every day so that the rest of us may enjoy
the safety and security you provide. You
do make a difference. You make a
difference every day.
The work that you do is essential. I believe it.
The Department of Justice believes it.
And President Trump believes it.
You can be certain about this: we have your back and you
have our thanks.
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