DEA-Led Task Force Takes Aim at San Antonio's Fentanyl Supply

San Antonio police now respond to about 150 overdose calls a month, up from roughly 135, and on Monday federal and local officials announced a new Drug Enforcement Administration-led task force aimed at the people supplying the drugs behind them. The Overdose Task Force pulls together the DEA, the San Antonio Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the University of Texas at San Antonio Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.

The unit's mission is to treat each overdose as the starting point of an investigation, tracing the drugs backward to dealers and larger networks rather than closing the case at the scene. San Antonio Police Chief Jesse Salame said the department is assigning five detectives with narcotics and homicide backgrounds to the effort.

"This isn't just about the overdose itself. This is about getting to the people behind the drugs," Salame said at the announcement. "Our goal is simple: save lives, disrupt the supply chain of dangerous drugs, hold those responsible accountable, and keep San Antonio safe."

The first operation

The task force did not begin from a standing start. Its first operation, an investigation on the city's West Side, already produced federal charges against three people, according to U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons.

Investigators identified homes in the 1000 block of Troyon Street where fentanyl was being sold, Simmons said, noting the properties sit within 1,000 feet of an elementary school and less than a mile from a high school. Searches of three homes led to several arrests.

Valerie Sanmaniego faces a charge of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl after investigators said they found fentanyl and a handgun. Alfredo Alejandro was allegedly found with methamphetamine, cocaine and a fentanyl-heroin mixture along with a shotgun and an AR-15-style rifle, plus scales and baggies consistent with distribution. Alejandro Reyes, allegedly found with a fentanyl-heroin mixture, was seen making hand-to-hand sales outside the homes, according to Simmons.

Prosecuting deaths, not just drug sales

Officials framed the task force as an attempt to expand the use of a specific federal tool: prosecuting dealers when the drugs they sold cause a death. DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ben Post said federal prosecutors can pursue those cases when fatalities are linked to other controlled substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, not only opioids.

Post said about a dozen people have been federally prosecuted in the Western District of Texas over the past three years in cases where the drugs they distributed resulted in deaths. The average sentence was 12 years in federal prison, with the longest at 24 years.

Simmons said combining investigators from multiple agencies lets them share resources and pursue cases that might otherwise be handled separately. "The benefit of this task force is just bringing all these resources together," he said. "Being able to combine our efforts in this way really makes us much more effective than maybe we would have been individually."

Investigators will also examine connections between drug dealing, gangs and violent crime. While the first operation centered on the West Side, Simmons said the task force will investigate drug activity and overdoses anywhere in the San Antonio area.

What the task force does not address

Officials did not provide a figure for how many people have died of overdoses in San Antonio so far this year, and the announcement did not include new money for treatment or overdose reversal medication, the tools that stop a fatal overdose in progress.

That gap is familiar on a beat where supply-side enforcement and public health responses run on separate tracks. Bexar County and the surrounding region remain part of a state where medication-assisted treatment capacity, like methadone clinic coverage, is unevenly distributed — the same access problem that shapes outcomes in rural and underserved urban areas nationwide.

The task force launches as San Antonio's overdose call volume is climbing rather than falling, a local trend that runs against a national decline in reported overdose deaths over the past two years. Neither the police department nor the U.S. Attorney's Office said when the task force's next operations would be announced.