President Trump’s newly appointed DEA chief told The Post in his first interview that he hopes to build a multinational “army of good to fight evil” in a no-holds-barred war against Mexican drug cartels.
Drug Enforcement Administration chief Derek Maltz said he has long pushed for the cartels’ recent designation as an international terror group.
“I don’t care what we actually call them. I care on all accountability for destroying our future generations,” Maltz said. “They have to be held accountable.
“We can’t just continue to arrest them in America, create indictments, do extraditions, because that’s not good enough,” he said. “We need a sense of urgency. And in my view, we have to use all of the American patriots that have the full capabilities and parties to decimate our enemies.”
Maltz, a 28-year veteran of the DEA, said he wants to go after the powerful and well-armed narcotraffickers by building a multi-agency coalition — and form a partnership with Mexican authorities.President Trump’s newly appointed DEA chief told The Post in his first interview that he hopes to build a multinational “army of good to fight evil” in a no-holds-barred war against Mexican drug cartels.
Drug Enforcement Administration chief Derek Maltz said he has long pushed for the cartels’ recent designation as an international terror group.
“I don’t care what we actually call them. I care on all accountability for destroying our future generations,” Maltz said. “They have to be held accountable.
“We can’t just continue to arrest them in America, create indictments, do extraditions, because that’s not good enough,” he said. “We need a sense of urgency. And in my view, we have to use all of the American patriots that have the full capabilities and parties to decimate our enemies.”
Maltz, a 28-year veteran of the DEA, said he wants to go after the powerful and well-armed narcotraffickers by building a multi-agency coalition — and form a partnership with Mexican authorities.
“We’ve watched the growth of the cartels using advance technology, advance weapons system,” he said. “They built up an army down there, and to be honest, in the past, we were not getting the adequate cooperation from our partners in Mexico.
“Now, to make it clear, I am a huge party-ship builder,” Maltz said. “I want to build maximum partnerships. So the reality is we have to build partnerships with Mexico, in my view.”
He said Trump’s newly announced 25% tariffs on Mexico could be an impetus to get the US’ southern neighbor to cooperate more.
“We are going to work together, and we’re going to make sure that the accountability is put in place,” he said. “So I believe [it] would be a very significant measure to move this in the right direction.
“The Mexican cartels are the enemy of our children, and they’re a disaster for our country,” he added. “So we want to do everything in our power.”
Maltz also credited Trump’s all-hands-on-deck war on illegal immigration with building the “synergy and synchronization” needed for a “massive cooperative center of all expertise and authorities.
“DEA has a global footprint,” he said. “We have a tremendous source network around the world. We’re going to use all of our capabilities to support the agencies. We’ve already started to do it.”
He noted that the goal is to target just the illegal migrant drug dealers and criminals.
“There is nobody in this administration that I’m aware of that is prioritizing the removal right now [of migrants who] are very poor, you know, families trying to have a better life,” Maltz said.
“I mean, US authorities have a prioritization. And right now the priority is the most violent and the most serious criminals that are here, devastating our community.”
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