DOJ Looks to Possibly Merge the DEA and ATF, Memo Reveals

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

US Justice Department considers merging DEA, ATF in major shakeup, a memo says. This comes amidst previous comments by FBI Director Kash Patel of combining a portion of the ATF into the FBI. FBI Director Kash Patel is also serving as the ATF's Acting Director, in an unusual dual role.

Trump has nominated Terry Cole, a longtime law enforcement veteran, to lead the DEA, though he has not yet named a permanent head of the ATF.

The potential merger of the ATF and DEA would represent one of the biggest shakeups of the Justice Department's law enforcement components since following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In addition to potentially merging the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, department leaders are considering eliminating field offices that handle antitrust, environmental and civil cases, according to the March 25 memo.

A possible merger of the ATF and DEA into a single agency would "achieve efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction and regulatory efforts," the memo says. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered department officials in the memo to provide feedback to the proposed restructuring by April 2.

He said the plan for proposed cuts and mergers to various offices was previously provided to the Office of Personnel Management and the White House Office of Management and Budget.

A DOJ official said the memo represents a preliminary proposal that is being circulated to solicit feedback from various department leaders.

Reuters previously reported the Justice Department was considering drastically scaling back staffing in the Public Integrity Section, which handles the department's most politically sensitive public corruption cases. Several of its attorneys had resigned in protest after a top Justice Department official ordered them to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

The memo also calls for re-assigning some public corruption attorneys to work out of U.S. Attorneys' offices across the nation, "while maintaining a core team of supervisory attorneys" to remain in the section.

The two agencies often work together on cases/operational task forces and on several occasions, the DEA has led undercover operations targeting the most wanted arms traffickers, including Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The DEA's experience allowed for undercover agents posing as buyers for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels to easier penetrate the trafficking networks across the globe.

And the two agencies have had their conflicts at times with recent indictments against Los Chapitos and with Operation Fat & Furious that saw many ATF monitored weapons being allowed to flow into Mexico to arm the cartels.

The ATF's role in enforcing gun laws has exposed it to more political pressure from conservatives than other arms of U.S. law enforcement. Gun rights groups have long sought to limit its legal authority to regulate the firearms industry. The Senate has only managed to muster enough votes to confirm an ATF director in two instances since 2006, when the role became subject to Senate confirmation.

Many of the negotiations between the new administrations in Mexico and the United states have included doing more on the US side of the border to stem the so-called iron river and target straw purchasers and weapons smugglers

With recent designations of the primary Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), many of the justifications for designating the groups as terrorist organizations instead of organized crime groups (TCOs) cited the violence and warfare type arms being used in Mexico.

An increase in explosive drones being used to target military, rival cartel smugglers and seen in regions such as Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Sinaloa.

Sources Reuters