The Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluated the coordination between the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) regarding cross-designated counternarcotics operations. Between FY 2019 and 2023, DEA authorized over 4,000 HSI agents annually to participate in drug investigations, focusing on smuggling across U.S. borders. However, DEA lacks tracking mechanisms for processing times of these authorizations and has not set timeliness goals.
Additionally, although DEA and HSI agreed in 2021 to implement two joint training modules to enhance collaboration, these have yet to be finalized due to ongoing disputes over content. The agencies have not utilized their agreed-upon dispute resolution process to overcome the impasse.
In response, GAO issued three open recommendations:
-
The DEA Administrator, with support from the Director of ICE, should establish and monitor timeliness goals for cross-designation processes. They should also collect and analyze data on the time involved in the processes.
-
DEA should collaboratively finalize and implement the training modules per their 2021 agreement.
- ICE should collaboratively finalize and implement the training modules per their 2021 agreement.
Read the full GAO report here.