Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

In compliance with federal law, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is responsible for the oversight of all controlled substances. DEA has the authority to levy federal and/or civil charges against violators who grow, manufacture, or distribute illegal substances. The DEA also works with state, local, and international officials to bring individuals and organizations to justice whenever they violate drug enforcement laws in those jurisdictions. The DEA is headquartered at 2401 Jefferson Davis Highway, Alexandria, Virginia 22301. Information on the agency is available by telephone (1-202-307-1000), through the 21 regional offices, and on the internet (http://www.dea.gov/).

The DEA's major responsibilities include investigating charges against suspected violators, preparing cases for prosecution by appropriate individuals; managing the national drug intelligence program; implementing the seizure and forfeiture of assets proved to be associated with drug trafficking; enforcing the sections of the Controlled Substances Act that deal with the manufacture, distribution, and dispensing of legally produced controlled substances; working with governments at all levels to stop violators who perpetrate crimes across borders; and implementing measures to control illegal substances through such activities as crop eradication, crop substitution, and training of foreign officials engaged in drug enforcement. The DEA also works with the secretaries of state and U.S. ambassadors to coordinate international drug enforcement activities and serves as a liaison in the area of drug enforcement between the United States and the United Nations, Interpol, and other international crime-fighting agencies.

DEA and FDA agents caught e-traffickers who used websites to illegally distribute controlled substances in Operation “Cyber Chase.”

In 1915, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was assigned the responsibility of drug enforcement. With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, Prohibition expanded the scope of the Bureau's activities as speakeasies sprang up around the country, and as moonshining activities expanded in rural areas. Organized crime was an offshoot of Prohibition, and DEA agents were engaged in fighting crime on a major scale. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced Reorganization Plan 1, combining the Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which, as an agency of the Treasury Department, had been responsible for controlling marijuana and narcotic drugs, and the Bureau of Drug Abuse and Control (BDAC), which operated under the auspices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to control depressants stimulants, and hallucinogens. The new agency became the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), operating under the Department of Justice to enforce all federal laws on controlled substances. In 1973, as part of the global war on illegal drugs, President Richard Nixon introduced Reorganization Plan 2, consolidating all federal drug enforcement responsibilities into the current DEA.

The decision to consolidate drug enforcement responsibilities was in large part a reaction to the emergence of the drug culture that had become a permanent element of American society. Those responsibilities took on new meaning in the latter decades of the 20th century when schools became a frequent target of drug dealers, many of whom were students themselves. DEA data indicate that the number of people using illegal drugs grew from 4 million in 1960 to 74 million in the first years of the 21st century. During that same period, international drug-trafficking syndicates, such as those from Colombia and Mexico, made the DEA's efforts to control illegal drugs even more difficult. Between 1960 and 1974, the DEA opened offices in 43 foreign countries, covering the globe from Paris to Hong Kong to Mexico to the Philippines to Canada to the Netherlands.

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