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FBI Director Kash Patel arrives to attend the Republican Senators’ lunch meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Washington, D.C. CQ Roll Call via TNS<\/p>\n
\n Bill Clark\/CQ Roll Call\n <\/p>\n
FBI Director Kash Patel joined U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R.-Pa., at a roundtable event in Allentown on Wednesday to tout state and federal efforts to combat Pennsylvania\u2019s fentanyl crisis, as well as a declining number of overdoses from the synthetic drug.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Dave Sunday, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf, and district attorneys from Philadelphia\u2019s collar counties also attended the meeting at the Edward N. Cahn U.S. Courthouse.<\/p>\n
Officials largely attributed the decline in overdose deaths \u2014 from an average of around 4,000 per year in 2020-2024 to around 1,000 in 2025 \u2014 to White House policies, in addition to increased efforts from the FBI, DEA and other law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very big focus, because it\u2019s such a poison that destroys families and destroys communities,\u201d McCormick said.<\/p>\n
The roundtable saw McCormick, Patel, and other officials meet several Pennsylvanians who had lost loved ones to fentanyl. That included Jim Ott, the Blair County sheriff who lost his 33-year-old son, Josh, to fentanyl.<\/p>\n
The conversation was not open to the media. Patel said the families urged leaders to push for programs that educate school children at a younger age about the harmful effects of the drug.<\/p>\n
Patel said President Donald Trump had emboldened the FBI to attack the fentanyl crisis since returning to office, though there was \u201cstill work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FBI director suggested the president\u2019s immigration crackdown at the U.S. southern border was helping stem the flow of deadly drugs into the country. And he said his trip to China last fall, where he spoke with counterparts<\/a> about restricting the production and export of drug-making chemicals, had addressed the \u201croot cause\u201d of the problem.<\/p>\n Asked how nation\u2019s approach to drug enforcement had changed, Patel said he had directed 1,000 agents from the FBI\u2019s Washington, D.C. office and placed them in the field \u2014 including in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore last year, one third of the FBI\u2019s entire workforce was housed inside the National Capitol Region,\u201d Patel responded to an Inquirer reporter. \u201cThat\u2019s bureaucracy. We eliminated that.\u201d<\/p>\n The FBI director\u2019s last major appearance in Pennsylvania was in October, when the FBI director announced the results of a large-scale investigation<\/a> into a Kensington-based drug gang.<\/p>\n The event came as the Trump administration continues to prioritize stopping the flow of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the country.<\/p>\n The White House has pressured other countries to stem the flow of drugs across borders, and has extrajudicially blown up boats in the Caribbean it said were operated by cartels. While former President Joe Biden treated the fentanyl crisis as a public health issue, Trump has cast his efforts to reduce impact more like a militarized drug war.<\/p>\n