FBI director credits interagency efforts, cites big seizure and arrest figures in Tennessee remarks

The FBI director, speaking in Tennessee, credited coordinated federal, state and local efforts for recent gains against violent crime and the opioid crisis and pledged to continue sending agents into communities. He said the administration nd interagency partners have reduced the national murder rate and opioid deaths and highlighted large seizures and extraditions as evidence of progress.

"When President Trump was elected, The United States Of America gave him a clear mandate to safeguard our most precious commodity, our children," the FBI director said, adding that since his nomination he has focused on backing and resourcing law enforcement. He told the audience that the FBI nd its partners re "just getting started."

The director cited multiple enforcement statistics. He said national murder rates had fallen by 20 percent and that opioid deaths declined by 20 percent last year. He described Tennessee-specific enforcement figures: a 160 percent increase in violent-crime arrests in the state and a 53 percent increase in arrests for violent crimes against children, and he said the FBI seized what he characterized as enough fentanyl in Tennessee to "kill 6,600,000 people," a figure he described as a 120 percent increase.

On international cooperation, the FBI director said he traveled to Beijing and reached an agreement with Chinese counterparts to halt exports of 21 chemical precursors used to make fentanyl, and that this action has had "immediate effects" on illicit production. "All 21 ingredients that were necessary to make this drug that is killing our children were shut off by the Chinese government," he said.

He also credited the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations and the ATF for joint operations, and cited a presidential task force in Memphis that he said achieved a 60 percent reduction in crime. He said Mexico extradited roughly 100 narco-traffickers to the U.S. for prosecution in the last year and described operations that targeted air and sea routes and that led to restrictions on some pharmaceutical companies abroad.

The director recounted operational seizure totals he attributed to recent work: "Just last year, we seized enough fentanyl at the FBI to kill 178,000,000 Americans," and he said that in the first quarter of 2026 the FBI had seized 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, about 250 kilograms of methamphetamine and 38 kilograms of heroin. He framed these results as the product of removing bureaucratic constraints and increasing resources for law enforcement.

He also highlighted fugitive apprehensions, saying the FBI captured seven of its most-wanted fugitives in the last year, including a narcotrafficker he named, and compared that to four top-10 captures during the prior four-year period. The director closed with a personal anecdote: he described himself as a first-generation Indian American, framed law enforcement as central to his life, and pledged that the FBI would continue to prioritize field deployments and the protection of children.

The remarks were largely a mix of operational claims, performance statistics and policy endorsements rather than an announcement of new formal measures. The director pledged continued cooperation with federal and local partners and said he would keep agents deployed "at a rate that has never been done before."