House subcommittee hears federal officials and tribal leaders on cartel activity, law-enforcement gaps in Indian country

WASHINGTON — The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday heard competing accounts of progress and persistent gaps in the federal response to transnational drug cartels operating in Indian country, with Department of the Interior and FBI officials describing large recent seizures and new task forces while tribal leaders and reservation police urged Congress for sustained funding and expanded authority.

“Most illicit drugs available throughout Indian country are not manufactured on the reservations, but rather transported into Indian country,” Charles Addington, principal director of Justice Services and Law Enforcement for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, told the subcommittee. He described recent enforcement operations and mobile enforcement team deployments that he said disrupted trafficking networks.

The hearing underscored two linked themes: federal officials outlined law-enforcement tools and recent interagency operations that they said have produced large drug seizures and arrests, while tribal leaders and local chiefs described continuing shortages of patrol officers, detention space and treatment capacity that, they said, allow traffickers to exploit reservations.

What federal officials said

Addington described two recent enforcement examples. He said a Bureau of Indian Affairs drug enforcement K-9 traffic stop on Interstate 40 within the Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico uncovered what he described…