Combatting Illicit Drugs: DOJ and DHS Must Resolve Uncertainties Around Collaboration to Ensure Effective Counternarcotics Investigations

A GAO report finds that the DEA and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division have relied on a 2009 interagency agreement and a 2021 joint letter to coordinate counternarcotics investigations, but a January 2025 Justice Department legal opinion and a May 2026 memo from the Acting Attorney General have thrown the status of those older requirements into question. As of June 2026, DOJ officials told GAO they still hadn't determined how the new memo affects existing obligations like joint training and a required Headquarters Review Team.

GAO found the two agencies had addressed only four of eight leading collaboration practices even before the new memo muddied things further; the unmet ones include ensuring accountability and sustaining leadership. GAO made five recommendations, including that DOJ and DHS simply clarify what still applies; DOJ agreed, DHS did not, and GAO says its recommendations stand regardless.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.