DEA’s astonishing internal security problem

In February 2021, Wolf launched Entertainment, the company behind the hugely successful Law and Order: SVU franchise on NBC, announced it was bringing on board veteran prosecutor Anne Milgram as legal counsel. Her favorite episodes, she said in the company’s promo piece, were about human trafficking cases in Mexico, where “there’s a huge amount of human trafficking going on” involving cartels.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram at a news conference in Washington on April 14, 2023, where the DOJ announced its indictment of 28 members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Today, Milgram heads the Drug Enforcement Administration, a major mission of which, of course, is battling Mexican cartels responsible for the tsunami of fentanyl, coke, heroin and, of course, illegal migrants flooding into the United States.

“Every day we look at where the vulnerabilities are for these cartels, for their networks, how we can target them and dismantle them to dismantle them and defeat them,” Milgram told 60 Minutes on Sunday. “And we are working tirelessly to end this threat, and we are making progress. But there is still so much more to be done.”

That’s for sure, according to a stunning report released Thursday by the Justice Department’s inspector general. According to the OIG, the DEA has hired hundreds of special agents and intelligence analysts who did not pass or complete their polygraph entrance exams but “who were nonetheless hired and/or allowed to operate in DEA-led task forces and foreign vetted units.” contrary to DEA policy.”

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