The Strategic Goals of the DEA

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which serves as the lead federal agency for the enforcement of controlled substance laws and narcotics, has a clear mission of focusing all of its efforts and resources on the immobilization of major drug trafficking organizations.

The DEA supports all federal drug control programs and initiatives through its programs as to reduce domestic drug-related crime and violence, drug production and availability, and to stop the illegal manufacturing, trafficking, and distribution of illicit drugs in the United States.

The DEA carries out its mission through clearly organized goals:

Goal 1: Educating the Youth of America to Reject Alcohol, Tobacco and Illicit Drugs

The DEA works toward this goal through its Demand Reduction Program, which provides drug prevention education and leadership programs to each of the 21 domestic field divisions. This program, which is operated by 22 special agents, who are referred to as Demand Reduction Coordinators, are specially trained and educated to deal with law enforcement officials, the community, healthcare professionals, employers, and youth.

The Demand Reduction Program includes 6 priorities, which include:

  • Anti-Legalization Education
  • Training for Law Enforcement Personnel
  • Youth Programs
  • Drug-Free Workplace Programs
  • Support for Community-Based Coalitions
  • Sports Drug Awareness Programs

Goal 2: Reducing Drug-Related Crime and Violence to Increase the Safety
of Citizens

The DEA’s State and Local Task Force Program allows the federal program to provide a federal response that plagues the nation’s state and local law enforcement agencies. The program accomplishes this goal by providing state and local officers with specialized equipment during undercover operations and expands the workforce under the DEA’s supervision, among others.

Goal 3: Cutting Off Foreign and Domestic Drug Supplies

The DEA’s Domestic Enforcement Program includes investigative operations throughout the agency’s 21 field divisions. This program, which employs the majority of DEA Special Agents, involves using a number of highly sophisticated investigative tools and relying heavily on information obtained from informants, from state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies, and from intelligence sources.

Other programs within the DEA used to reach this goal include:

  • Foreign Cooperative Investigations Program
  • Intelligence Program

    • Operational Intelligence Program
    • Strategic Intelligence Program
    • National Drug Intelligence Center
  • Research, Engineering, and Technical Operations Program
  • Drug and Chemical Diversion Control Program

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