KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s two largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, were chosen to be part of a new Drug Enforcement Administration program that targets drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths.
The DEA announced Tuesday that 34 cities in 23 states will be part of the first phase of the Operation Overdrive initiative.
Launched Feb. 1, Operation Overdrive “uses a data-driven, intelligence-led approach to identify and dismantle criminal drug networks operating in areas with the highest rates of violence and overdoses,” according to a release.
Operation Overdrive is billed as a partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement. The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is aware of the initiative and cooperating with the DEA.
The data that underpins Operation Overdrive has been culled from national crime statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to identify hot spots of drug-related violence and overdose deaths across the country, in order to devote its law enforcement resources to where they will have the most impact: the communities where criminal drug networks are causing the most harm,” the DEA said in a statement.
According to the CDC, accidental overdose deaths, including from synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine, topped 100,000 people in the U.S. for the 12-month period ending in April 2021.
Such deaths have climbed rapidly in recent years with 70% of reported overdose deaths in 2019 from opioids, according to the CDC.
That includes a 15% spike in the Kansas City area.
The DEA said its statistical analysis shows that the majority of criminal drug networks traffic in fentanyl or meth and “almost all” also have been tied to violent drug crime.
The DEA St. Louis Division, which includes all of Missouri, reported more than 300 firearms seizures and record seizures for meth (2,097 kilograms) and fentanyl (180 kg) in 2021.
The other cities targeted for Operation Overdrive are: Atlanta; Baltimore; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Bronx, New York; Buffalo, New York; Camden, New Jersey; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Chicago; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbia, South Carolina; Dayton, Ohio; Detroit; Flint, Michigan; Indianapolis; Jackson, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis; Miami; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Newark, New Jersey; Oakland, California; Peoria, Illinois; Philadelphia; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Richmond, Virginia; San Bernardino, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Washington, D.C.; Wilmington, Delaware.
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For jurisdictions that utilize the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline, anonymous tips can be made by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
