WASHINGTON. – The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades this year after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deporting immigrants, a Reuters review of nearly 2 million federal court records found.
So far this year, about 10% fewer people have been prosecuted for drug violations compared to the same period of 2024, court records show, a drop of about 1,200 cases and the slowest rate since at least the late 1990s. The pullback was more dramatic for the types of conspiracy and money-laundering cases often used to pursue higher-level traffickers. The number of people charged with money laundering dropped by 24%, according to Reuters’ analysis.
Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump launched the broadest overhaul of US law enforcement since the attacks of September 11, 2001. He ordered thousands of federal agents to focus on fending off what he described as an “invasion” of illegal immigration.
The shift has produced a coast-to-coast slowdown in the types of investigations and prosecutions that the government had long viewed as central to taking on criminal networks, including the drug cartels whose products killed more than 80,000 people last year, as agents focused instead on quick-hit immigration raids, interviews and court documents show.
“We’re seeing a reduced amount of time on long-term investigations so agents can go out in their raid gear and be seen supporting immigration raids,” said a senior Justice Department official involved in those investigations, who, like others, asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Despite Trump’s promises to take a tougher approach to drug enforcement, even high-priority cases have stalled as a result, four officials familiar with the cases told Reuters. One prosecutor said a fentanyl investigation he supervised was at a standstill because the agents who were leading it had been ordered to focus on deportations instead. Another official said investigations of drug rings have been delayed.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that Trump’s “highly successful efforts at closing the border and removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our communities, along with prosecuting violent drug traffickers and targeting transnational cartels, means less illegal drugs are circulating in American communities.”
“Focusing on the number of charges does not accurately reflect the great work our attorneys are doing to hold the most serious offenders accountable,” said Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre. She said efforts to pursue organized crime are long-term and that “our focus has been to eliminate transnational drug cartels, prosecute violent drug traffickers,” and help with immigration enforcement.
Drug prosecutions at historic low
To measure the effect of law enforcement’s new marching orders, Reuters gathered the dockets for every publicly available case filed in federal court since 1998 from Westlaw, an online legal research service that is a division of Thomson Reuters. Reuters compared the number of cases filed between January 1 and September 15 to the same period in previous years.
In some cases, Reuters used artificial intelligence to classify the charges people faced. A review of a random set of records showed the methodology to be 98% accurate.
Reuters also interviewed more than 15 current and former law enforcement officials, nearly all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations or for fear of retaliation. Together, they offered the most comprehensive picture to date of the impact of Trump’s overhaul.
Their accounts show drug enforcement has bogged down at almost every stage. Investigators have been slower to develop new cases and less available to work on existing ones. And prosecutors, too, have shifted their focus to work on criminal violations of immigration laws, leaving them less time to pursue other cases, the sources said.
Although overdose deaths in the United States have been dropping since 2023, driven at least in part by the widespread availability of the overdose antidote naloxone, there is little sign that the drug trade itself is drying up. The total amount of drugs seized by US Customs and Border Protection so far this year was up about 6% from last year.
But the number of people charged with importing drugs into the United States dropped about 6% this year to the lowest point in at least 25 years, according to court records. The number of people charged in drug conspiracies fell by about 15%.
The impact of diverting so many agents has rippled beyond drugs: Prosecutions for violating laws that prohibit criminals and others from owning guns or from using them during drug crimes fell about 5% this year.
The drop in gun cases is likely to grow because investigations opened now might not reach a courtroom for a year or more. Sidelining so many agents “is going to have a huge effect,” said Jeff Cohen, who was a top lawyer for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency in charge of enforcing gun laws, before he retired in July.
