The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The DEA is responsible for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations both domestically and internationally.
The DEA has an intelligence unit that is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. While the unit is part of the DEA chain-of-command, it also reports to the director of national intelligence. The administration has been criticized for scheduling drugs that have medicinal uses, and for focusing on operations that allow it to seize money rather than those involving drugs that cause more harm.
The DEA was established in 1973 as part of the U.S. government's war on drugs.
History and mandate The Drug Enforcement Administration was established on July 1, 1973, by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973, signed by President Richard Nixon on July 28. It proposed the creation of a single federal agency to enforce the federal drug laws as well as consolidate and coordinate the government's drug control activities. Congress accepted the proposal, as they were concerned with the growing availability of drugs. As a result, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE); approximately 600 Special Agents of the Bureau of Customs, Customs Agency Service, and other federal offices merged to create the DEA.
The DEA is the primary federal agency charged with implementing and enforcing the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which is Title II of a larger Federal Act called the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The DEA is responsible for drugs listed in the CSA's five drug Schedules, categories that rank drugs by their potential for harm, and whether they have a medical use. The CSA seeks to ensure legitimate access to controlled pharmaceuticals, while preventing illicit use of controlled drugs. To these ends, the DEA implements two intersecting legal schemes created by the CSA, registration provisions for entities involved in legal activities, violations of which are not usually criminal offenses, and trafficking provisions for illegal activities, violations of which are criminal offenses.
From the early 1970s, DEA headquarters was located at 1405 I ("Eye") Street NW in downtown Washington, D.C. With the overall growth of the agency in the 1980s (owing to the increased emphasis on federal drug law enforcement efforts) and concurrent growth in the headquarters staff, the DEA began to search for a new headquarters location; locations in Arkansas, Mississippi and various abandoned military bases around the United States were considered. However, then–attorney general Edwin Meese determined that the headquarters had to be located close to the attorney general's office. Thus, in 1989, the headquarters relocated to 600–700 Army-Navy Drive in the Pentagon City area of Arlington County, Virginia, near the eponymous Metro station.
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh carried out a terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was targeting regional offices for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and DEA, all of which had carried out raids that he viewed as unjustified intrusions on the rights of the people. This attack caused the deaths of two DEA employees, one task force member and two contractors in the Oklahoma City bombing. Subsequently, the DEA headquarters complex was classified as a Level IV installation under United States federal building security standards, meaning it was to be considered a high-risk law enforcement target for terrorists. Security measures include hydraulic steel roadplates to enforce standoff distance from the building, metal detectors and guard stations.
In February 2003, the DEA established a Digital Evidence Laboratory within its Office of Forensic Sciences.
Organization
The DEA is headed by an administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The Administrator reports to the attorney general through the deputy attorney general. The administrator is assisted by a deputy administrator, the chief of operations, the chief inspector, and three assistant administrators (for the Operations Support, Intelligence, and Human Resources divisions). Other senior staff includes the chief financial officer and the chief counsel. The administrator and deputy administrator are the only presidentially appointed personnel in the DEA; all other DEA officials are career government employees. DEA's headquarters is located in Arlington County, Virginia, across from the Pentagon. It maintains its own DEA Academy located on the Marine Corps Base Quantico at Quantico, Virginia, alongside the FBI Academy. , the DEA lists 241 domestic offices in 23 divisions and 91 foreign offices in 68 countries. In 2023, the agency described its workforce as nearly 10,000 employees.
Circa 2015 its headquarters and the DEA Museum were in in Lincoln Place, a rented office building in Pentagon City in Arlington County, Virginia. In September 2018 this lease was scheduled to end. The General Services Administration (GSA), circa 2015, was checking to see where in Northern Virginia the DEA could be headquartered. In 2018 the government of the United States extended the lease at Lincoln Place, now to expire circa 2033. The DEA administration favored retaining the original location.
Structure Administrator Deputy Administrator Human Resource Division Career Board Board of Professional Conduct Office of Training Operations Division Aviation Division Office of Operations Management Special Operations Division Office of Diversion Control Office of Global Enforcement Office of Financial Operations Intelligence Division Office of National Security Intelligence (ONSI) Office of Strategic Intelligence Office of Special Intelligence El Paso Intelligence Center OCDETF Fusion Center Financial Management Division Office of Acquisition and Relocation Management Office of Finance Office of Resource Management Operational Support Division Office of Administration Office of Information System Office of Forensic Science Office of Investigative Technology Inspection Division Office of Inspections Office of Professional Responsibility Office of Security Programs Field Divisions and Offices
Special agents
DEA special agents are generally hired at the GL-07, GL-09, or GS-11 levels and, in some cases, at the GS-12 or GS-13 level, depending on education and experience. Special agents generally progress to the GS-13 grade within a few years after being hired. They also receive 25 percent Law Enforcement Availability Pay in addition to base and locality pay.
All special-agent candidates must attend the 14-week Basic Agent Training Program at the DEA Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The program covers physical fitness, standards of conduct, legal and academic instruction, report writing, practical exercises, driver training, defensive tactics, tactical operations, and firearms training. Applicants in the 1811 federal criminal-investigator occupational series who have completed qualifying federal criminal-investigation training may be eligible for a three-week residential program instead.
Because the DEA is responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, it applies pre-employment restrictions concerning illegal drug use. Under the policy updated June 27, 2024, applicants generally cannot have used marijuana or cannabis within three years of applying or other illegal drugs within seven years; marijuana use before age 18 is not an automatic disqualifier. DEA applicants must undergo a background investigation and drug test, and pre-employment requirements may also include a polygraph examination and medical examination.
The DEA's relatively firm stance on personal drug use contrasts with those of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in 2023 considered further relaxing their eligibility guidelines so as to combat dwindling recruitment rates.
Aviation Division
The DEA Aviation Division is headquartered at the Aviation Operations Center at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas. The division has approximately 135 Special Agent/Pilots and 100 aircraft, including airplanes and helicopters, with personnel and aircraft located in the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
The DEA shares a communications system with the Department of Defense for communication with state and regional enforcement independent of the Department of Justice and police information systems and is coordinated by an information command center called the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) near El Paso, Texas.
Special Response Teams
Rapid Response Teams (RRT), previously known as Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Teams (FAST), were decommissioned by DEA acting administrator Chuck Rosenburg in March 2017 via memorandum. A need for domestic high-risk service teams led to the hybrid creation of specialized tactical units residing within various geographical regions throughout the United States.
DEA officially created and standardized its Special Response Team (SRT) program in 2016. The SRT was designed as a stop-gap between tactical operations conducted by field agents and those necessitating specialized tactics as a result of elevated risks. SRT operators are highly trained in various weapons systems and entry tactics/maneuvers. Because of the clandestine nature of the DEA mission, SRT training protocols and activation requirements are highly sensitive and not available to the public. Some of the SRT missions consist of high-risk arrests, vehicle assaults, air assault/infiltration, specialized surveillance, custody of high-profile individuals, dignitary and witness protection, tactical surveillance and interdiction, advanced breaching, tactical training to other police units, and urban and rural fugitive searches. Covertly located throughout the nation, DEA SRT teams are available to respond to practically any CONUS geographical area with little to no preparation or notification. The DEA SRT has been involved in several high-profile operations in recent years, however, DEA involvement is often not publicized due to operational and intelligence considerations. Considered one of the most covert outfits in federal law enforcement, very little is known about DEA SRT capabilities and its operator selection process.
In the past, DEA had other tactical teams like the High-risk Entry Apprehension Teams (HEAT) in some Field Divisions, and Operation Snowcap Teams (predecessor of FAST). The teams administered by the Mobile Enforcement Section, the Mobile Enforcement Teams (MET), and Regional Enforcement Teams (RET), were mobile investigative units intended to deploy resources to state and local agencies (MET) or DEA Field Divisions (RET) in need of assistance with a particular investigation or trafficking group. These programs ended in the early 2000s.
Special Operations Division The DEA Special Operations Division (SOD) is a division within the DEA, which forwards information from wiretaps, intercepts, and databases from various sources to federal agents and local law enforcement officials. The SOD came under scrutiny following the 2010s global surveillance disclosures.
Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program