“While all of us have been working individually to fight gangs and drugs, our individual efforts were not as effective as we wanted,” said United States Attorney Matthew Schneider, who announced the new Southeast Michigan Strike Force which is aimed at dismantling and prosecuting violent drug trafficking organizations operating in southeast Michigan, the United States and the world.
The new strike force is a combination of a number of law enforcement agencies that includes "personnel from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and approximately 26 state, local and Canadian law enforcement agencies," according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's office for Michigan's Eastern District.
“We know that gangs and cartels work together. So we’re doing the same thing. We’re going to step up our efforts. We are now communicating immediately, sharing intelligence, and planning our attacks against these criminals together,” said Schneider.
Since Michigan's strike force began last fall, their seizures have included 35 kilograms of fentanyl, 50 kilograms of cocaine, and about three million dollars in drug money.
