DEA in Atlanta using new lab for federal drug seizures in fight against cartel

ATLANTA, Ga. – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Atlanta has a new tool in its fight against one of Mexico’s most notorious cartels.

The DEA Atlanta Field Division opened a new lab in May to process all federal drug seizures in Georgia. The lead DEA agent in Atlanta said the lab is already making agents more efficient as they go after the violent “Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).”

In the past, the DEA in Atlanta would call in chemists from labs in other cities to test drugs, a process that took a few days to complete. Now that the lab is in house, the agency can test drugs within minutes. 

“It would take maybe a day or two for somebody to come out,” said Chad Chumbley, DEA Supervisory Forensic Chemist. “We are able to respond right away and help out.”

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Since federal prosecutors determine charges based on what the drug is and how much of it an agent seizes, the DEA chemists who test and weigh the drugs play a vital role in the process.

In September, the DEA in Atlanta seized over 1,000 pounds of meth in an operation targeting the CJNG. After the busts, agents sent the drugs to the lab for testing. 

“We will take a statistical sampling to give a general proportion of the population that will contain the substance,” Chumbley said. 

Agents arrested five illegal immigrants who they said were distributing the meth in black trash bags. Robert Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division, said all the suspects were Mexican nationals with ties to CJNG.

“Over 700 pounds of this was in an apartment with two kids under ten years old in there,” Murphy said. “They do that by design. Cartels want to blend in.”

Murphy estimated the street value of the meth to be at least $4 million. He said the suspects were also in charge of getting that money back to the cartel. 

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“Their drug of choice is money. They care nothing about the poison, the people, the lives they’re destroying or the misery they’re dealing in. That doesn’t bother them one bit,” Murphy said.

CJNG has risen to power ever since the arrest of multiple high-ranking members of the rival Sinaloa Cartel.

In 2023, El Chapo’s son, Ovidio Guzmán López, was arrested in Mexico. The next year, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, another son of El Chapo, were arrested in El Paso, Texas.

“All the war and fighting going on in Mexico — it’s about one thing. Whoever controls the gateway, the access points to the U.S., wins the war in the end,” Murphy said. “CJNG has risen to power, and we want to make sure our efforts are focused on making sure they don’t get too strong.”

The operation is part of the DEA’s nationwide effort to crackdown on CJNG. 

On Monday, DEA agents stopped more than 175 pounds of cocaine linked to the cartel from crossing the southern border into the United States. The next day, agents in Houston seized more than 28 pounds of cocaine and $470,000 from suspected CJNG members. 

“Every little bit counts. Every seizure counts. We’re targeting the entire network from facilitators, producers, transporters, money launderers — anybody that we come across that’s related to CJNG, we are pursuing,” said Brian Leordo, DEA Houston Field Division Deputy Special Agent in Charge.