The Trump administration earlier this month appointed Sara Carter as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, commonly known as the "drug czar," making her the first woman in U.S. history to lead the office.
Carter was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the administration's "fight against illicit drugs and drug cartels," according to a statement released by the White House on the day of her appointment.
A former investigative journalist and the daughter of a Cuban immigrant, Carter made a public appearance this week at the U.S.-Mexico border, where she vowed to seal the southern border against illicit activity such as drug and human trafficking and to push cartels out of the United States.
As detailed by Border Report, Carter visited El Paso, Texas, and Sunland Park, New Mexico, alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. Speaking to reporters, Carter said the Office of National Drug Control Policy will continue backing law enforcement in the fight against drug trafficking and delivered a pointed message to cartels.
"And to the cartels, we want to send them a message: Your days are numbered," Carter said.
Both officials said a sharp drop in illegal immigration has allowed CBP officers to conduct more thorough interviews with migrants and suspected drug carriers, making it easier for authorities to more precisely target criminal cells trafficking drugs along the southern border.
"Where we're standing right now, a couple of years ago during the Biden administration, was completely overwhelmed with illegal immigration to the point we literally had no idea who or what was entering our country," Scott said.
According to CBP data released Jan. 16, the agency seized nearly 40,000 pounds of illicit drugs in December, with 47 percent intercepted along the southern border.
Asked about Trump's repeated threats to deploy U.S. troops to Mexico to dismantle cartels, Carter said the president "will do what he needs to do."
"He has said that in public, and I'm with the president. He will make his decisions when those decisions come to pass," she said.
Carter added that Trump will use "every resource at his disposal" to fight drug cartels and said he will continue working with top officials across Latin America to combat organized crime.
To successfully combat cartels, Carter said it is essential for the United States to work with other countries in the region to further reduce the flow of drugs into the U.S.
"We cannot win this war if we are not united. Together we can win. Alone, we can't do it," she said.
Carter said she plans to increase local participation in anti-drug efforts through task forces operating in areas where illegal narcotics enter the country or are distributed in cities across the U.S.
Similarly, Scott said federal authorities are mapping cartel logistics and organizational structures and working with local agencies to disrupt their operations.
"We are mapping out the logistics of the cartels, the organizational structure of the cartels and working with local agencies to systematically take away the cartels' ability to kill your children with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics coming into the country," he said.
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