Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks for the 2024 Drug Enforcement Administration Family Summit

Remarks as Delivered

Good morning.

Thank you, Sean.

Thank you, Anne, for your leadership of the extraordinary men and women of the DEA. Thank you for fighting for the victims of the overdose epidemic and their families.

To the families who have joined us today: on behalf of the entire Department of Justice, I want to thank you for being here.

Your presence today is an act of love for those you have lost. And it is an act of extraordinary courage in their memory.

Although you may have been brought here by pain, you are united by a shared purpose. That purpose is to prevent others from experiencing the heartbreaking loss of loved ones that you have experienced. Thank you so much for sharing their stories.

Thank you for honoring them.

I want you to know that you are not alone.

All of us at the Department of Justice are united in our commitment to honoring the memories of your loved ones through our work.

First, we are united in our commitment to supporting the education and awareness efforts that we know save lives.

Second, we are united in our commitment to addressing the public health challenges of addiction and substance abuse by supporting prevention and treatment programs.

And third, we are united in our resolve to bring every person responsible for fueling this epidemic to justice in an American courtroom. We are committed to breaking apart the cartels that are fueling the crisis, and to ensuring there is no hiding place for the criminals responsible for poisoning Americans with drugs.

First, we know that awareness and information are some of the most important tools we have.

That is because one of the particularly difficult realities of this synthetic opioid epidemic, and fentanyl in particular, is that many people who consume it do not know that that is what they are doing.

They may not realize that violent drug cartels manufacture and move fake pills that are designed to look like brand-name drugs — but are actually laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl.

And they may not realize that just two milligrams of fentanyl — the equivalent of a few grains of salt — may be deadly.

Every day, the extraordinary men and women of the DEA, under the leadership of Administrator Milgram, work closely with their state and local partners to seize deadly drugs.

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of fake pills that contain a deadly dose of fentanyl. DEA’s lab testing found that seven out of every 10 pills it seized contained enough fentanyl to kill someone.

So far in 2024, the DEA seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills — many of them fake prescription pills — and more than 6,100 pounds of fentanyl powder — representing more than 302 million deadly doses.

Our work to spread awareness about this epidemic, and the fact that just one pill can kill, is as urgent as it has ever been.

Second, as we work to raise awareness about this nearly invisible poison, we are also committed to doing everything we can to support those who are struggling with substance use disorder.

In Fiscal Year 2024, the Department’s Office of Justice Programs awarded more than $308 million in grant funding, training, and technical assistance to support prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

Those awards will support, among other things, treatment courts, residential treatment programs, prevention and harm reduction services, evidence-based treatment, services for opioid-affected youth, and services that improve quality of care and prevent recidivism.

More than a third of the grant program will go to our Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant and Substance Use Program.

Through this program, we have increased access to naloxone and medication-assisted treatment; provided peer support to overdose survivors and their families; and supported law enforcement agencies in identifying people in need of substance use treatment services and helping those people get help.

These challenges are more than any one person should have to shoulder themselves. The Justice Department is working to ensure that no one is alone.

Finally, the Justice Department is working every day to bring those responsible for this epidemic to justice. We are working to break apart the fentanyl supply chain that has flooded our communities with poison.

Over the past three and a half years, the Department has zeroed in on the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, the two largest and most violent drug trafficking networks in the world, which have wreaked havoc on American communities.

Our agents and prosecutors are working with state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners to attack every link in the cartels’ global chain.

We are targeting the cartels’ leaders, their drug traffickers, their money launderers, their clandestine lab operators, their security forces, their weapons suppliers, and their chemical suppliers.

Since 2021, the Justice Department has extradited more than 50 cartel members from Mexico to the United States.

In September, we secured the conviction of the man known as El Menchito, the second in command of the Jalisco Cartel. He employed unspeakable violence to build the cartel into a self-described “empire” by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of the deadly drug.

In July, we arrested the man known as “El Mayo,” a cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel. We also arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the “Chapitos,” a son of the cartel’s other cofounder, El Chapo. We indicted them on drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering charges.

In May of this year, the man known as “El Nini,” was extradited from Mexico to the United States. We alleged that El Nini was one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins, and was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the cartel’s criminal trafficking network.

And last fall, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and another son of El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering, and firearms charges.

We are also focused on targeting every level of the cartel’s operations that span countries and continents.

We know that the fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the death of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.

That is why just last week, the Justice Department indicted a China-based chemical company, its director, and several of its senior [officers] on fentanyl charges.

Last month, the Justice Department announced charges against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees who we allege are responsible for trafficking precursor chemicals that cartels use to manufacture deadly fentanyl.

On behalf of all of us at the Justice Department, we promise that we will not stop working until all those responsible for the deadly fentanyl epidemic face justice.

As we work to strengthen the community responses to addiction and to break apart the fentanyl supply chain, we promise that we will never forget those we have lost.

There are many staggering statistics on the fentanyl crisis, but none of them adequately grasp the gravity of the loss.

They do not capture the feeling you have told me about of the person missing at your dinner table.

They do not capture the days and nights spent in mourning.

They do not capture the heartbreak that a friend, a parent, a child, or a partner’s life has been cut short.

But by being here today, you all have decided to be their legacy. You have chosen a legacy of compassion, of love, but of determination and resolve.

Every time we look at the “Faces of Fentanyl” in the DEA Headquarters lobby, we remind ourselves of why we are in this fight.

And we promise that we will carry your loved ones in our heart in our continued work to end to the poisoning and overdose epidemic.

Although my time as Attorney General is coming to an end, I am so proud of the extraordinary men and women of DEA who will continue to work tirelessly to save lives.

And I am so proud of all of you.

Thank you again for being with us today.