The Drug Enforcement Administration, more commonly referred to as the “DEA,” is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is given the specific authority of focusing on and battling the trafficking and distribution of narcotics within the United States. The DEA has the authority to investigate, pursue and coordinate United States drug investigations that have a nexus both domestically and abroad. The DEA was created on July 1, 1973, by President Richard Nixon. The DEA is given its investigatory powers under Title 21 of the United States Code USC Controlled Substances Act, which established a federal US drug policy that regulates the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances. The DEA is comprised of many professionals, such as Special Agents (SAs), Diversion Investigators, Chemists, and Intelligence Research Specialists, but it is the SAs, who are solely the sworn federal law enforcement officials within the DEA, who can effectively make arrests that are derived from their Title 21 authority.
