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 in testimony as 122.22 pounds of pills field-tested as fentanyl, which he said equated to hundreds of millions of pills and had a street value of about $20 million. He also described a coordinated deployment tied to DEA’s Operation Overdrive in and around the Yakama Nation reservation that, he said, led to multiple federal arrests and the seizure of more than $44 million in illegal narcotics and real property.

Justin Garris, acting section chief of the FBI’s violent crimes unit, said the FBI is using multi-agency task forces, information sharing and surge operations to target trafficking and violent crime in Indian country. “The Bureau is deeply committed to dismantling violent criminal networks in Indian country using an intelligence driven, victim centered approach,” Garris said. He said the FBI has about 20 active Indian-country investigations with validated transnational organized crime connections and about 270 additional drug-related cases being investigated for such connections. He also said the bureau fields roughly 350 full-time employees supporting Indian-country matters, including special agents, analysts and victim specialists.

Both witnesses described new or expanded national efforts they said are improving coordination: Addington cited the Division of Drug Enforcement and mobile enforcement team operations within the BIA; Garris cited Homeland Security Task Forces and the designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which he said gives law enforcement new investigative tools.

What tribal leaders and local police told the committee

Tribal witnesses described a different, ground-level reality. Anthony Hillaire, chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council in Washington, said his community has seen repeated fentanyl overdoses and that existing limits on tribal authority complicate prosecutions. “We’ve seen drug dealers walk free and return to our reservation the same day they were taken into custody,” Hillaire said, urging Congress to expand tribal criminal jurisdiction and to treat the crisis as both a law-enforcement and public-health emergency.

Frank White Clay, chairman of the Crow Tribe, said the Crow Reservation spans about 2.4 million acres and has limited patrol coverage. He told the subcommittee the tribe has seen record seizures of methamphetamine and fentanyl and that budget shortfalls have constrained its ability to respond. Joshua Roberge, chief of police for the Fort Belknap Indian community, said his department has seven patrol officers for an area roughly the size of Rhode Island and urged sustained increases to base funding rather than reliance on competitive grants.

Former DEA resident agent Stacy Zinn described long-term cartel relationships with Montana communities and said investigations in recent years produced convictions tied to organized cartel networks and to guns-for-drugs trafficking. Zinn said federal pressure on cartel leadership has temporarily disrupted some flows but that gaps in staffing, jail capacity and local prosecution persist.

Funding, staffing and jurisdictional issues

Several members and witnesses cited a February 2024 report to Congress (Department of the Interior) that found federal funding covered only about 13% of public-safety and justice needs in Indian country and estimated a shortfall of roughly 25,655 personnel; witnesses urged Congress to close that gap. Ranking members and tribal witnesses also said the White House’s fiscal proposals and other agency cuts risked further reductions to tribal health and law-enforcement capacity; testimony referenced proposed cuts to Indian Health Service accounts and to drug-trafficking programs.

Witnesses pointed to a mix of enforcement and health responses: tribal governments described opening stabilization and medication-assisted treatment programs, temporary recovery beds and emergency measures such as drug checkpoints, while asking for predictable federal funding, expanded prosecutorial capacity and stronger interagency coordination.

Committee context and next steps

Members of the subcommittee asked for written follow-up from witnesses and said the record would remain open for responses. No formal legislative action was taken at the hearing; members from both parties emphasized the need for continued oversight, more officers on reservations and expanded collaboration between federal and tribal authorities.

The hearing record was held open for 10 business days for written responses from witnesses and agencies.