President Donald Trump has appointed Derek Maltz as acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Senate confirmation would be required to make Maltz’s position permanent, though it is currently unclear if Trump will pick him for the role. In the meantime, Maltz will be running a drug-war agency of 10,000 employees, with power and influence over enforcement, intelligence and regulations around medical prescribing and the availability of substances for research.
The DEA announced Maltz’s appointment on January 21, the first full day of Trump’s second term. He replaces Anne Milgram, who served as administrator under President Joe Biden and left the previous week. Trump’s first DEA pick, Chad Chronister, withdrew in December following right-wing pushback.
“Maltz is a passionate, dedicated, career special agent who served 28 years at DEA before retiring in 2014,” the DEA stated. “He also proudly served as the Chief of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, the country’s oldest and largest drug task force.”
Maltz spent nearly a decade in the DEA’s Special Operations Division, working on “transforming” the agency’s relationships with foreign partners. In line with Trump’s emphasis, the DEA stated that Maltz’s focus will be on disrupting and dismantling “drug trafficking networks responsible for flooding the United States with dangerous drugs such as fentanyl. ”
In the announcement, Maltz pledged to work “closely within the federal, state and local partners, to seize record amounts of illicit drugs; bring the world’s most ruthless narco-terrorists to justice; and save American lives by creating a vast network of community partners to help spread critical awareness.”
Maltz has written posts about illicit cannabis farms (run by “CHINESE CRIMINALS”) and Philadelphia’s battle to open an overdose prevention center (“will help support the Mexican Terror Cartels”).
What else do we know about Maltz? Marijuana Moment reports that he has made past hostile remarks about cannabis, falsely linking “obsessive pot smoking” to school shootings, and urging “irresponsible politicians” to “understand the NEGATIVE IMPACTS from smoking this crap!”
Maltz also previously weighed in previously on a major question that will cross his desk: the proposed reclassification of marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, a process begun under the Biden administration. In May, Maltz accused the Department of Justice of “hijacking” the process from the DEA. “It sure seems to me that DOJ has prioritized politics and votes over public health and safety!” he said.
He has also written inflammatory social media posts about illicit cannabis farms (run by “CHINESE CRIMINALS”), Colorado’s support for rescheduling (“the priorities are out of order!”), Oregon’s overturned law decriminalizing drug possession (“TOTAL FAILURE,” “IDIOTIC”) and Philadelphia’s legal battle to open an overdose prevention center (“will help support the Mexican Terror Cartels”).
“Maltz is a career DEA official whose skepticism about cannabis and the need for critical reform has long been documented,” Adrian Rocha, director of policy at the Last Prisoner Project, told Filter.
“Looking at his policy positions, it may be a return to a much more hardline [stance of] tough on drugs, drug users and cartel issues,” Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.), executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), told Filter. “He has been one of the leading vocal voices on declaring the cartels to be terrorist organizations.”
“He’s a big advocate of undercover money-laundering operations, which we have very ineffectively used since the modern-day War on Drugs to dismantle cartels,” she continued. “A lot of these money-laundering operations also result in corruption.”
The designation of drug-trafficking groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, for which Trump signed an executive order on January 20, is partly political “posturing,” Goldstein added, but could also have dangerous consequences, like weakening relations with allies such as Mexico and causing more violence.
Maltz, at least for now, “will inherit a rescheduling process that has already been mired in accusations of unfairness.”
Maltz, at least for now, “will inherit a rescheduling process that has already been mired in accusations of unfairness,” Rocha noted, referring to allegations against the DEA; the process is currently indefinitely postponed. “The DEA has been skeptical of the rescheduling process. Anne Milgram did not sign the proposed rule rescheduling cannabis from Schedule I to III.”
Nonetheless, Rocha continued, “We are hopeful Maltz will align with President Trump’s sentiment on the campaign trail that he is starting to ‘agree a lot more’ that individuals should not be criminalized for cannabis, and help fulfill President Trump’s mandate to ‘continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana [through rescheduling] and work with Congress to pass common-sense laws.’”
It’s possible that Maltz will not ultimately serve as DEA administrator, however. At least one other former DEA official claims he is being vetted for the permanent job, as ABC 7 Chicago reported on January 17. Jack Riley previously served as second-in-command of the agency and as head of its Chicago office, before retiring in 2017. He most notably worked on the case to capture and extradite Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The DEA was formed in 1973 under President Richard Nixon. Its primary responsibility is implementing and enforcing the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which created the federal regimen classifying drugs into five schedules. In fiscal year 2024 the DEA’s expenditure was $3.6 billion.
The agency focuses on “cultivation, production, smuggling, distribution, laundering of proceeds, or diversion.” It doesn’t prosecute drug cases but gathers evidence and submits its investigations to criminal and civil courts. Its agents have the authority to make arrests, and to seize drugs, vehicles, property and cash.
One key role of the DEA is illustrated by its “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas,” a series of partnerships between federal, state and local police agencies to carry out enforcement operations.
“What these [HIDTA] do is open up tremendous levels of federal funding to flow into communities to ‘fight’ drug trafficking and other offenses,” Rocha explained. “The DEA has significant control over where those programs exist and how much funding goes where. Do we see existing HIDTA funding double or triple to ‘fight the opioids coming in across the border’? [The DEA administrator] will play a role in determining that.”
“We need to develop a better drug control strategy that is based not on punishing people but saving lives.”
The DEA’s global presence meanwhile includes 91 foreign offices in 68 countries. These offices may work with partner governments to gather intelligence and conduct investigations. It also sponsors and conducts “counternarcotics training.”
“Historically you have seen … the DEA’s role in enforcing crimes related to marijuana decline, and the severity of sentences [and amount of arrests] associated with opioids and fentanyl increase tremendously,” Rocha commented. “That international focus is also growing, with an emphasis on China’s role” in the production of synthetic opioids.
Rocha predicted that if Trump follows through on his promised border crackdown, focused on undocumented migrants and fentanyl, the DEA will play a key role in coordinating with agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Goldstein is not optimistic about potential changes, under Trump, to the DEA’s already-harmful role.
“Every time we take out a kingpin, has it eliminated America’s appetite for drugs?” she asked. “It hasn’t. We keep throwing tons of money at intervention, and absolutely ignore [that] it is Americans driving the market. We need to develop a better drug control strategy that is based not on punishing people but saving lives.”
Photograph of Maltz speaking at 2023 AmericaFest by Gage Skidmore via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0
The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, was formerly fiscally sponsored by LEAP. Diane Goldstein serves on the Board of Directors of The Influence Foundation.
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