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State of California Department of Justice
Rob Bonta
Attorney General
Attorney General
California DOJ through its Division of Law Enforcement’s Bureau of Investigation works with law enforcement partners to take fentanyl out of communities and hold fentanyl traffickers accountable.
Since April 2022, the California DOJ has seized approximately 9,348,852 fentanyl pills and 1,213 pounds of powder, and made over 200 arrests.
In April 2021, Attorney General Bonta established the statewide Fentanyl Enforcement Program that is designed to detect,disrupt, and dismantle fentanyl criminal enterprises and prevent fentanyl from reaching California neighborhoods and communities.
DOJ works with allied task forces, including local and federal law enforcement partners throughout California. The Fentanyl Enforcement Program works with local and federal law enforcement partners throughout the state to address the fentanyl crisis and get these dangerous drugs off California's streets. The program is comprised of Bureau of Investigation regional investigative teams placed in San Diego, Los Angeles, Dublin and Sacramento.
Through the 2023 Budget Act, DOJ secured $7.9 million for the creation of the program within DOJ under coordination of the Bureau of Investigation to expand this important work, with an allocation of $6.7 million in ongoing funding.
FAST is a multiagency taskforce first established in August 2022, focused on the disruption and dismantlement of criminal organizations who smuggle and distribute fentanyl within San Diego County. FAST targets fentanyl smuggling and distribution networks to counter the rising overdose rate and decrease the availability and accessibility of fentanyl. With its close proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, San Diego County has experienced a 700% increase in fentanyl overdose deaths since 2016, linked to the illegal trafficking of fentanyl — both pressed into counterfeit pills and in powder form —from Mexico into the United States. FAST uses traditional as well as advanced investigative techniques to target the individuals and criminal organizations involved in fentanyl smuggling and distribution. California DOJ joins Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Diego, with full time partnership from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations (CBP OFO) Enforcement and Removal Operations, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Internal Revenue Service, and the San Diego United States Attorney's Office in this work.
DOJ's offers support through its Bureau of Forensic Services, which, among other things, helps law enforcement across the state by identifying fentanyl in drug offense-related samples and quantifying fentanyl in cases involving driving under the influence of a controlled substance submitted to DOJ.