Feds Start 'Operation Overdrive' Drug Crackdown In Kansas City

A local anti-drug effort courtesy of federal law enforcement is already underway.

Kansas City is part of a national sweep that includes a bevy of big cities from across the metro.

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The DEA announced Tuesday that 34 cities in 23 states will be part of the first phase of the Operation Overdrive initiative. Launched Feb. 1, Operation Overdrive “uses a data-driven, intelligence-led approach to identify and dismantle criminal drug networks operating in areas with the highest rates of violence and overdoses,” according to a release.

Operation Overdrive is billed as a partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement. The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is aware of the initiative and cooperating with the DEA.The data that underpins Operation Overdrive has been culled from national crime statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to identify hot spots of drug-related violence and overdose deaths across the country, in order to devote its law enforcement resources to where they will have the most impact: the communities where criminal drug networks are causing the most harm,” the DEA said in a statement.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

DEA initiative to combat overdoses, gun crime includes Kansas City, St. Louis

Missouri's two largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, were chosen to be part of a new DEA program that targets drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths. The DEA announced Tuesday that 34 cities in 23 states will be part of the first phase of the Operation Overdrive initiative.