EAGLE PASS, Texas — According to a Department of Homeland Security source, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has all but abandoned its offices in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. One of the border offices has only one special agent working there, and the other has a special agent from the local police force. This situation, according to the source, leaves only one DEA agent working several days a week along the Texas border between El Paso and Laredo.
A 604-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border between El Paso and Laredo is designated a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) under a program created by Congress under the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1988. Traditionally, the DEA has spearheaded law enforcement task forces in both cities to respond to drug seizures by the Border Patrol and other local and state authorities, according to sources.
Sources not authorized to speak to the media said the DEA offices, which are now mostly empty, are no longer able to provide investigative or criminal prosecution services due to cuts and personnel changes by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
All that remains in one of the two border towns today, according to sources, is a local law enforcement officer assigned to keep the lights on at the nearly abandoned DEA office in Del Rio. Only one special agent remains in Eagle Pass, sometimes working less than a week. As of 2024, the agency employs more than 10,000 people, nearly half of whom are special agents. Breitbart Texas visited the Eagle Pass DEA office during regular business hours and found the facility to be nearly empty.
While the office was vacant, fentanyl seizures across the U.S. and along the Southwest border continued to rise. According to the DEA, the agency seized more than 1,000 tons of fentanyl. 80 million fake pills laced with fentanyl and about 12,000 pounds of powder fentanylAccording to the DEA, these seizures amount to more than 390 million lethal doses of fentanyl. In 2024, fentanyl seizures amount to the equivalent of 254 million lethal doses.
The Eagle Pass/Del Rio portion of the South Texas HIDTA serves as a major transportation hub to San Antonio and beyond. According to CBP, Fentanyl seizures increased by more than 860 percent Between 2019 and 2023, synthetic opioids like fentanyl kill more than 150 Americans every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Sources say it makes little sense to essentially abandon the border region where most of the fentanyl is produced.
“Ordinary law enforcement officials will still try to get it off the streets, but this sends a message that the federal agencies primarily responsible for the national drug enforcement strategy aren't interested enough to stay near the border,” the source stressed.
In the case of drug seizures by the Border Patrol, sources said an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) gives the DEA first right of refusal to accept cases for investigation and prosecution. Local police and sheriff's offices also rely on the DEA to assist in investigating and prosecuting larger drug seizures. Law enforcement agencies along the border turn to DEA special agents for link analysis to trace drugs back to the cartels that transported them across the border.
According to sources, in the absence of special agents to personally investigate drug cases, local authorities will carry out the task themselves as members of task forces under the authority of the DEA.
“It's like a small town where the mayor is also the fire chief, postmaster and sheriff. We will be wearing our DEA hat as task force members, but unless things change, you won't see DEA special agents anywhere near the operations in these two border towns,” a source told Breitbart Texas.
According to a recent ABC News report: ReportMeanwhile, staffing cuts are underway at other locations outside the U.S. The DEA closed two offices in China as it struggles to keep fentanyl precursors from falling into the hands of Mexican drug cartel operatives. “These closures reflect the need to target DEA's limited, strained resources where they can have the greatest impact to save American lives,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, who was appointed by President Biden in 2021, said of the closures of the 12 offices around the world, according to the report.
It's unclear whether the severe staffing shortages facing Texas border offices are the result of planned attrition or simply unchecked attrition. In response to requests for information from the DEA and its parent agency, the Department of Justice, the DEA responded, “Due to security reasons, we cannot comment on office staffing.”
Randy Clark Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as Chief of the Law Enforcement Operations Division, where he led operations for nine Border Patrol stations in the Del Rio Sector, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to add a statement from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
