Modesto congressman calls for boosting drug enforcement to deal with fentanyl crisis
Republican Congressman John Duarte of Modesto announced bipartisan legislation Friday to bolster drug trafficking enforcement and commit $302 million annually for interdiction and prosecution in high intensity drug areas across the country.
The congressman announced the HIDTA Reauthorization Act of 2024 at a news conference in Modesto, also attended by county sheriffs and district attorney officials from the San Joaquin Valley, as well as parents who lost loved ones to fentanyl poisoning.
It would increase federal funding for law enforcement agencies in High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, giving them tools and equipment to get fentanyl and other illegal drugs off the streets.
Valley counties became familiar with the HIDTA program following the explosion of methamphetamine in the 1990s. Now a high priority is fentanyl, an extremely lethal drug that resulted in 121 confirmed overdose or poisoning deaths in Stanislaus County in 2023.
“The death rates in the counties in my district alone in 2023 are up 750 percent over five years ago,” Duarte said. “It is hitting all parts of our communities. This is an epidemic. It’s the No. 1 killer of young people age 18 to 45 right now.”
Speakers at the news conference at the Stanislaus District Attorneys office said the drug enforcement efforts would not target street-level dealers, but would go after those distributing high volumes of fentanyl.
Duarte said the unsecure southern border has allowed cartels to smuggle fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs into the United States. Border patrol agents were able to seize 26,700 pounds of fentanyl last year, almost a 500% increase over 2020.
But he said an unknown amount of drugs is getting through and is distributed throughout the country, an influx resulting in more than 112,000 fentanyl deaths last year.
Duarte and others supporting the legislation propose to reauthorize the HIDTA program, with a $22 million annual increase in funding. Grant funds for High Intensity Drug Trafficking areas would support drug seizures and interdiction activities.
Other measures would assign 16 assistant U.S. attorneys to assist High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas with investigation and prosecution of fentanyl traffickers. The legislation also would encourage coordination between law enforcement and immigration authorities to take action against international drug cartels.
One of the nation’s 33 HIDTAs, the Central Valley California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area includes multiple agencies in 15 counties, including Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Merced, Madera and Fresno. Rep. David Valadao, R-Bakersfield, and Democrats from Texas and New Mexico are also promoting the legislation.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said his office brought a murder charge last week against a dealer accused of selling fentanyl to an unsuspecting person who died. A murder charge against a fentanyl dealer is hard to prosecute.
Christie Hoffman of Modesto, whose son, Connor, died in 2021 after getting $10 worth of fentanyl from a person on SnapChat, said that homicide case ended in a plea bargain due to legal complications. “He was kind, creative and respectful,” Hoffman of her 21-year-old son.
Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse said the regional HIDTAs are a cost-effective way of addressing the supply side of the nation’s addiction crisis. About 8,800 pounds of methamphetamine were seized in the Central Valley area in the last year, in addition to 900 pounds of cocaine and more than 321 pounds of fentanyl.
Dirkse said methamphetamine is still a focus of the Central Valley HIDTA. But fentanyl is a major threat to the public. The fentanyl powder seized in the past year was equal to 4.1 million pills, of which 60% to 70% contained a fatal level of the synthetic opioid drug.
The sheriff said that 58 pounds of fentanyl powder seized in Stanislaus County was enough to kill everyone in the western half of the United States.
