Addressing the Fentanyl Crisis

So every time, uh, I echo what Tom said, every time I meet

an angel mom or dad, you know, my heart breaks.

But I realize right after that how selfish that is because your

loss means your hearts are forever broken.

And just know this, like Tom said, we are never gonna stop this fight.

What you see up here with the leadership of Attorney General Todd Blanche and

President Trump is a whole of government approach with our partners at DEA,

DHS, DOJ, DAs, and prosecutors across the country,

ATF, and everybody else. This is a whole of government mission because

every time

you disrupt a criminal syndicate and a criminal enterprise,

that means you are

robbing them of their ability to inflict this pain upon the American community.

And what I mean by the whole of government approach is because thanks to President

Trump's willingness to engage with non-traditional partners and adversaries,

we have literally gone on the ground in China for the first time and

got them to agree to shut off the fentanyl precursors, uh, that were being

utilized

and... That were being utilized to make these

poison pills.

And that could not have happened unless President Trump opened up that door, and

that m- that means our work has just started.

I was back there again just a, a month or two ago, and we've gotten them to

list and designate another 24 fentanyl precursors.

And what we're here to tell you is that we see the intelligence every day

across

the interagency, and the drug traffickers

are being suffocated out of their

ability to make the lethality of fentanyl and other narcotics because of this

pipeline that we closed off thanks to President Trump.

Along with securing the border, as Tom talked about,

the initiative to crush

violent crime and defend the homeland has never been a greater priority of

importance. The FBI and our interagency partners, um,

we've seized

enough fentanyl, thri- 3,300 kilos, enough to kill a quarter billion

Americans.

That's been taken off the streets.

That means it won't hit your communities, it won't hit your schools, and it won't

hit your kids, and that's just a starting point in this

last 18-month

period. So the problem that we are

facing is not just a whole of government problem.

It's a problem that we need to f-focus in on and combine and team up with our

citizens. You guys are our most powerful resource.

You guys are our most powerful piece of information.

There is no piece of information that is too small.

Anything and everything you have, please provide to law enforcement.

It is the key in which we utilize to break down these

networks, to chase down these

thugs, and to put them in prison and kick them out of our country.

It is the way that we can get after the drug traffickers down south and everywhere

else and stop the ways that they are s- continuing to inflict pain

upon our communities. And yes, you know, thanks to President Trump, we

have reduced the violent crime rate to the lowest it's ever been in history.

And when you have that cascading effect, whether it's related to

drug trafficking or not, when you take the guns off the streets,

when you take the

criminals off the streets, when you take the illegals off the

streets, when you go

into sanctuary cities, like Tom said, we're gonna continue to do,

and we're gonna

continue to do it. When you go in there

and make sure the men and women of law

enforcement, who are finally backed by a president who

loves law enforcement

and American citizens who love law enforcement and not defend,

not wanna defund law

enforcement, but defend law enforcement.

And when you walk around the country and you see these activities championing

socialism. Socialism is a police state.

We are not a police state. We are a state defended by police and law

and order.

And you guys, I mean, I know you hear this,

but you energize us at the

FBI every single day with your stories, no matter how

painful and horrific they are. Know that they land squarely with us every

single

day and our field leaders and our prosecutors

and our teams across the country, and

we're gonna continue to partner with you and use this administration's prowess to

get after it so that we never have to come back and visit another angel mom or dad

again. And that's the mission of this government.

That's the mission of this FBI, and I'm just humbled to be a part of it.

Thank you all for being here.