SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley met with President Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in Washington DC.
The topic was fentanyl. Jackley, along with seven other Attorneys General, specifically talked about the influx of fentanyl coming into the United States.
Jackley didn’t hold back about on how it’s negatively impacting South Dakota.
“When you look at South Dakota, a midwestern state in the heartland of America, last year alone we confiscated 18.2 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill our population four to five times,” Jackley said during a press conference.
The amount of fentanyl seized has been slowly increasing each year from 578 grams in 2020 to 8262 grams last year.
Jackley was one of seven Attorneys General who attended Friday’s meeting.
Alan Wilson of South Carolina was another.
“When people ask me what keeps me up at night I have to talk about a lot of the things originating on the southern border of the United States, obviously a lot of the gang activity, the illegal immigration activity and probably most importantly the fentanyl that is being trafficked into our respective states,” Wilson said.
After the press conference, Jackley says he told President Trump that continued funding for the ‘high-intensity drug trafficking task force’ which is a partnership between local, state, and federal authorities will be instrumental in fighting the fentanyl crisis in South Dakota.
“That funding is very important to us, we have both investigators and prosecutors as a part of that,” Jackley said.
Jackley also says he’s been blessed to work with a strong public safety-minded legislature.
“From strengthening our laws on fentanyl distribution to fighting human trafficking, they’ve given law enforcement the tools to address and make our communities safe which is why these partnerships are so significant and so important for us to be able to get the laws enforced to protect our communities,” Jackley said.
