(From a press release)
District Attorneys from four Philadelphia suburban counties in Pensylvania—Chester County’s Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe, Bucks County’s Jennifer Schorn, Montgomery County’s Kevin R. Steele and Delaware County’s Jack Stollsteimer—are speaking out in support of recently introduced federal legislation that would increase funding for the funding to investigate and prosecute fentanyl traffickers.
The legislation, the HIDTA Enhancement Act of 2024, reauthorizes the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program through 2030 and increases HIDTA’s authorized funding to combat Fentanyl trafficking and aid federal prosecutors in fentanyl trafficking prosecutions. The bi-partisan legislation was introduced on September 26, 2024, by Senators Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).
Fentanyl is a significant problem in communities across Southeastern Pennsylvania and across the United States. In 2023, 106,876 people died from a drug overdose, with 74,088 of those deaths involving fentanyl, according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The opioid overdose crisis has torn apart countless communities and families across the country, and the prevalence and availability of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances in jurisdictions nationwide have perpetuated and exacerbated this deadly epidemic. The HIDTA Enhancement Act would help combat the ongoing opioid overdose crisis, which has tragically claimed so many lives and torn apart countless families and communities.
Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties are all members of the Liberty Mid-Atlantic HIDTA, which serves the greater Philadelphia area. HIDTA provides critical intelligence information, funding and enhanced partnerships with state and federal law enforcement that allow drug trafficking organizations to be investigated across county and state lines.
Steele said, “Drug trafficking, especially fentanyl trafficking, remains one of our top priorities because it affects people in our communities across the county, state and country,” said DA Steele. “HIDTA funding has saved lives—continued funding for HIDTA is critical in our fight against this deadly scourge and other poisons that are still causing too many deaths and affecting far too many families. Funding HIDTA is integral to bringing local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies together as one team to take on one of the most important epidemic challenges of our time.”
“The Liberty Mid-Atlantic HIDTA is a proven program that has allowed all of us to come together to attack fentanyl trafficking in the region. Without the infrastructure, funding, and collaboration it provides, law enforcement would be unable to hold the most sophisticated drug dealers accountable. Funding for HIDTA has been cut in recent years—but this legislation would rightfully fund this critical program,” de Barrena-Sarobe said.
Stollsteimer said, “Collaboration is absolutely essential to our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. HIDTA is a critical catalyst to that collaboration by providing additional resources for enforcement initiatives, as well as support services such as training, information technology, and intelligence analysis. We enthusiastically support this bipartisan effort to reauthorize HIDTA and to increase its funding.”
“The partnership established through HIDTA and the funding it provides has been invaluable in combatting the trafficking of poisonous drugs like fentanyl. This reauthorization of funding is the best weapon in our arsenal in the fight against these drug traffickers,” Schorn added.
