June 11, 2025

Wyden Urges Trump to Stop Plan to Eliminate Funds that Target Fentanyl Trafficking

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today urged Donald Trump to stop his administration’s plans to eliminate funds used by law enforcement to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and dismantle major criminal organizations in Oregon and across America. 

For more than three decades, the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) has been a vital law enforcement entity to counter organized crime and major drug trafficking by coordinating among dozens of agencies. Despite the critical role the OCDETF plays in providing investigatory and prosecutorial support, coordination, and information sharing  to local, state, and federal law enforcement to stop transnational criminal organizations, including those using the Interstate 5 corridor in Oregon and the West Coast to smuggle fentanyl into U.S. communities, Trump has proposed zeroing out funding for OCDETF in his fiscal year 2026 budget request. 

In a letter to Trump, Wyden said, “Defunding law enforcement in this manner will make it easier for major drug trafficking organizations to continue to transit fentanyl, methamphetamine, counterfeit prescription medication, and other illicit drugs into Oregon communities.”

Earlier this month, a drug trafficking leader in Lane County, Ore., was sentenced to federal prison for possessing 384 pounds of methamphetamine in a case the OCDETF successfully investigated. This follows the 2020 success of a OCDETF investigation that led to the dismantling of a major transnational drug trafficking and money laundering organization active in the Portland metropolitan area, as well as significant arrests and drug seizures as transnational criminal organizations use the Interstate 5 corridor as a primary route to traffic drugs like fentanyl into communities.

“OCDETF-led interagency coordination is critical to unite federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to effectively disrupt the operations of major transnational criminal organizations like the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels that have expanded operations across the country in recent years. Given this record of success, it is astonishing that you have proposed zeroing out funding for this crucial law enforcement entity,” Wyden said in the letter. “

“OCDETF provides critical support to our public safety mission by bringing together agencies and resources to help protect our communities from cartel-driven drug dealing organizations,” said Stephen Gunnels, Deschutes County District Attorney. “It is extremely important that we keep the pressure on these deadly criminal enterprises.”

“OCDETF is a critical funding mechanism for large multi-agency, multi-state cases and allows for collaboration with local law enforcement that would otherwise not be possible,” said Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler. “Losing this funding would severely hamper many drug teams, including ours at the Bend Police Department, and prevent us from doing large scale investigations necessary to protect the public.” 

“We have a longstanding relationship with our federal partners and rely on their resources and expertise in many investigations,” said Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel.

The text of the letter is here.