Drug Enforcement Administration


The Drug Enforcement Administration is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The DEA is responsible for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations both domestically and internationally.
It was established in 1973 as part of the U.S. government's war on drugs. The DEA has an intelligence unit that is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. While the unit is part of the DEA chain-of-command, it also reports to the director of national intelligence. The DEA has been criticized for scheduling drugs that have medicinal uses, and for focusing on operations that allow it to seize money rather than those involving drugs that cause more harm.

History and mandate

The Drug Enforcement Administration was established on July 1, 1973, by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973, signed by President Richard Nixon on July 28. It proposed the creation of a single federal agency to enforce the federal drug laws as well as consolidate and coordinate the government's drug control activities. Congress accepted the proposal, as they were concerned with the growing availability of drugs. As a result, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement ; approximately 600 Special Agents of the Bureau of Customs, Customs Agency Service, and other federal offices merged to create the DEA.
The DEA is the primary federal agency charged with implementing and enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, which is Title II of a larger Federal Act called the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The DEA is responsible for drugs listed in the CSA's five drug Schedules, categories that rank drugs by their potential for harm, and whether they have a medical use. The CSA seeks to ensure legitimate access to controlled pharmaceuticals, while preventing illicit use of controlled drugs. To these ends, the DEA implements two intersecting legal schemes created by the CSA, registration provisions for entities involved in legal activities, violations of which are not usually criminal offenses, and trafficking provisions for illegal activities, violations of which are criminal offenses.
From the early 1970s, DEA headquarters was located at 1405 I Street NW in downtown Washington, D.C. With the overall growth of the agency in the 1980s and concurrent growth in the headquarters staff, the DEA began to search for a new headquarters location; locations in Arkansas, Mississippi and various abandoned military bases around the United States were considered. However, then–attorney general Edwin Meese determined that the headquarters had to be located close to the attorney general's office. Thus, in 1989, the headquarters relocated to 600–700 Army-Navy Drive in the Pentagon City area of Arlington County, Virginia, near the eponymous Metro station.
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh carried out a terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was targeting regional offices for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and DEA, all of which had carried out raids that he viewed as unjustified intrusions on the rights of the people. This attack caused the deaths of two DEA employees, one task force member and two contractors in the Oklahoma City bombing. Subsequently, the DEA headquarters complex was classified as a Level IV installation under United States federal building security standards, meaning it was to be considered a high-risk law enforcement target for terrorists. Security measures include hydraulic steel roadplates to enforce standoff distance from the building, metal detectors and guard stations.
In February 2003, the DEA established a Digital Evidence Laboratory within its Office of Forensic Sciences.

Organization

The DEA is headed by an administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The Administrator reports to the attorney general through the deputy attorney general. The administrator is assisted by a deputy administrator, the chief of operations, the chief inspector, and three assistant administrators. Other senior staff includes the chief financial officer and the chief counsel. The administrator and deputy administrator are the only presidentially appointed personnel in the DEA; all other DEA officials are career government employees. DEA's headquarters is located in Arlington County, Virginia, across from the Pentagon. It maintains its own DEA Academy located on the Marine Corps Base Quantico at Quantico, Virginia, alongside the FBI Academy., it maintains 241 domestic offices in 23 divisions, and 91 foreign offices in 69 countries. With a budget exceeding $3 billion, DEA employs 10,169 people, including 4,924 special agents and 800 intelligence analysts.
its headquarters and the DEA Museum were in in Lincoln Place, a rented office building in Pentagon City in Arlington County, Virginia. In September 2018 this lease was scheduled to end. The General Services Administration, circa 2015, was checking to see where in Northern Virginia the DEA could be headquartered. In 2018 the government of the United States extended the lease at Lincoln Place, now to expire circa 2033. The DEA administration favored retaining the original location.

Structure

  • Administrator
  • * Deputy Administrator
  • ** Human Resource Division
  • *** Career Board
  • *** Board of Professional Conduct
  • *** Office of Training
  • ** Operations Division
  • *** Aviation Division
  • *** Office of Operations Management
  • *** Special Operations Division
  • *** Office of Diversion Control
  • *** Office of Global Enforcement
  • *** Office of Financial Operations
  • ** Intelligence Division
  • *** Office of National Security Intelligence
  • *** Office of Strategic Intelligence
  • *** Office of Special Intelligence
  • *** El Paso Intelligence Center
  • *** OCDETF Fusion Center
  • ** Financial Management Division
  • *** Office of Acquisition and Relocation Management
  • *** Office of Finance
  • *** Office of Resource Management
  • ** Operational Support Division
  • *** Office of Administration
  • *** Office of Information System
  • *** Office of Forensic Science
  • *** Office of Investigative Technology
  • ** Inspection Division
  • *** Office of Inspections
  • *** Office of Professional Responsibility
  • *** Office of Security Programs
  • ** Field Divisions and Offices

    Special agents

As of 2017, there were 4,650 special agents employed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA agents' starting salary is $49,746–$55,483. After four years, the salary rises to above $92,592. This figure doesn't include Cost of living allowance or LEAP which rated at 25% of base pay including COLA. Special Agents at the 13 step 5 level in high cost of living areas of the United States make near the federal pay cap of $191,000.
After receiving a conditional offer of employment, recruits must then complete an 18-week rigorous training which includes lessons in firearms proficiency, weapons safety, tactical shooting, and deadly-force decision training. To graduate, students must maintain an academic average of 80 percent on academic examinations, pass the firearms qualification test, successfully demonstrate leadership and sound decision-making in practical scenarios, and pass rigorous physical-task tests. Upon graduation, recruits earn the title of DEA Special Agent.
Because the DEA is responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, it excludes from consideration job applicants who use or have a recent history of using narcotics or illicit drugs. As of June 27, 2024, DEA applicants cannot have used cannabis or marijuana within three years of submitting their application and cannot have used any other narcotic substance within seven years of applying, although allowances are made for the use of marijuana prior to an applicant's 18th birthday. Background investigations usually include a polygraph test for special-agent, diversion-investigator, and intelligence research specialist positions.
The DEA's relatively firm stance on personal drug use contrasts with those of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in 2023 considered further relaxing their eligibility guidelines so as to combat dwindling recruitment rates.

Aviation Division

The DEA Aviation Division or Office of Aviation Operations is an airborne division based in Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas. The current OA fleet consists of 106 aircraft and 124 DEA pilots.
The DEA shares a communications system with the Department of Defense for communication with state and regional enforcement independent of the Department of Justice and police information systems and is coordinated by an information command center called the El Paso Intelligence Center near El Paso, Texas.

Special Response Teams

Rapid Response Teams, previously known as Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Teams, were decommissioned by DEA acting administrator Chuck Rosenburg in March 2017 via memorandum. A need for domestic high-risk service teams led to the hybrid creation of specialized tactical units residing within various geographical regions throughout the United States.
DEA officially created and standardized its Special Response Team program in 2016. The SRT was designed as a stop-gap between tactical operations conducted by field agents and those necessitating specialized tactics as a result of elevated risks. SRT operators are highly trained in various weapons systems and entry tactics/maneuvers. Because of the clandestine nature of the DEA mission, SRT training protocols and activation requirements are highly sensitive and not available to the public. Some of the SRT missions consist of high-risk arrests, vehicle assaults, air assault/infiltration, specialized surveillance, custody of high-profile individuals, dignitary and witness protection, tactical surveillance and interdiction, advanced breaching, tactical training to other police units, and urban and rural fugitive searches. Covertly located throughout the nation, DEA SRT teams are available to respond to practically any CONUS geographical area with little to no preparation or notification. The DEA SRT has been involved in several high-profile operations in recent years, however, DEA involvement is often not publicized due to operational and intelligence considerations. Considered one of the most covert outfits in federal law enforcement, very little is known about DEA SRT capabilities and its operator selection process.
In the past, DEA had other tactical teams like the High-risk Entry Apprehension Teams in some Field Divisions, and Operation Snowcap Teams. The teams administered by the Mobile Enforcement Section, the Mobile Enforcement Teams, and Regional Enforcement Teams, were mobile investigative units intended to deploy resources to state and local agencies or DEA Field Divisions in need of assistance with a particular investigation or trafficking group. These programs ended in the early 2000s.