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Thursday, July 14, 2011

House Appropriations Committee Directs U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to Prioritize Resources for Law Enforcement Activities in Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON, DC- Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi achieved the inclusion of language in the report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill that acknowledges the need for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to improve the recruitment and retention of law enforcement agents in jurisdictions with high vacancy rates, like Puerto Rico.

The report also directs the DEA, a component agency of the Department of Justice, to prioritize resources for law enforcement activities in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico.

“Despite the high rate of drug trafficking through Puerto Rico, 17% of all authorized DEA positions in Puerto Rico are currently vacant. The problem has two components: the difficulty that the federal government has in recruiting law enforcement officers to serve in Puerto Rico and the challenges it faces in retaining those officers once they have been assigned to the Island. This is an urgent problem and I will continue to draw attention to it until it is resolved,” said Pierluisi.

The Appropriations Committee’s direction to the Department of Justice comes a month after the Committee directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take similar steps to bolster its presence in Puerto Rico and the broader Caribbean region. That Appropriations report directed the three primary component agencies of DHS—U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection—to report to the Appropriations Committee by December 1, 2011, on how these agencies are deploying the resources necessary to effectively counter illicit drug trafficking in the Caribbean.

Pierluisi has repeatedly expressed the view in Congress, and to senior officials at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, that the federal government has not committed sufficient resources to address drug-related violence in Puerto Rico.