Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Thursday that his agency has been working with Native American tribes suffering under an influx of opioids and other hard drugs.
“The reservations, a lot of them, are land-based,” Mr. Zinke said on Fox News. “A lot of them are millions of acres. It’s hard to patrol.”
He said his agency formed a task force of 4,000 officers with tribal leaders and police. The most current operation targeted drug dealers in Arizona, but they’ve already performed sting operations in Minnesota, North Carolina and Washington.
Mr. Zinke said that since these tribal nations are sovereign, the agency works very closely with them to coordinate these operations. The goal is to target the source of the drugs and find where they are hidden.
“As the president has said, this is a war on opioids. It’s destroying communities,” he said.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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