Head of DEA says drugs from Mexico are big concern for Operation Legend in Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Drug Enforcement Administration has beefed up its efforts in Detroit, it says, to stop an increase in violence sparked by drug trafficking, a move that some have been critical of. 

FOX 2 talked one-on-one with the nation's new top drug cop, Timothy Shea, while he was here in Detroit recently. He says the point of Operation Legend is all about getting guns, drugs and gangs off the streets. 

"In the last two months 370 people have been shot in Detroit; 62 murdered," the Acting Administrator Drug Enforcement Agency told us. 

The DEA has been in Detroit for 25 years and this summer seven more agents were added to the mix as part of Operation Legend in a nationwide push in so-called "violent" cities to ramp up federal police.

"A small number of people in these cities commit a large number of the crime or are responsible for it. So our job is to get the real worst of the worst off the streets and that's what we're focused on at DEA," Shea said. 

Shea said drugs are tied to most violent crimes. So, the theory - stop the drugs, reduce crime.

Not everyone has welcomed more federal agents in the city. Their presence has been the latest topic of protests in the city, which have been ongoing for more than three months now. 

"We're here because there is a problem," Shea said. "We need to do something about it and complaining about the feds in town is not the way to do it."

RELATED: US AG William Barr visits Detroit after launch of Operation Legend

The DEA wants to take out kingpins of major organized drug trafficking operations and their tentacles in Detroit. 

"The biggest problem we have here in Detroit and around the country is the drugs that are coming from Mexico," Shea said. "The retail drugs are being distributed by the gangs in the city but the Mexican cartels are in total control of what's going on and that's a problem."

And that big business is not immune to the pandemic. With borders closed, a surplus of drugs is on Mexico's side and buyers, with stockpiles of cash, are on the US side. The supply chain here in Detroit has been interrupted by COVID-19. 

"The supplies of drugs, in some cases, has decreased significantly and the price has gone up. Meth, for example, the price went up 50% because of the scarcity of the drug," Shea said. 

And they're seeing more meth use here. The uptick and the lack of supply has drug dealers getting creative, cutting it with Fentanyl which is cheap and available. 

"That's why we've seen an increase in Fentanyl overdose deaths in the last few months because we are seeing Fentanyl mixed in with meth," Shea said.

The DEA has spotted more dealers pressing Fentanyl into pills now to look like meth or Oxycontin.

"The users are taking it thinking it's one drug when it's something totally different that could kill them in two minutes," Shea said.

Shea said they're actively working on several big busts in Detroit right now tied to the cartels. And once the borders open up the DEA is preparing for a surge of drug activity and the violence that follows. 

"They shouldn't have to walk out of their house and be afraid to get shot or dodge bullets. That's unacceptable in the United States."