New Houston DEA Chief intensifying battle to stop deadly synthetic drugs

HOUSTON - For Daniel Comeaux, a new posting in the Bayou City qualifies as a homecoming. 

"Automatically, I come in with a little street cred," said Comeaux.

As in "Houston streets", the same east and south side pavement Comeaux patrolled almost 30 years ago as a hard charging, big hearted rookie for HPD.

"I just remember wearing that light blue shirt and being so proud to go out there at the age of 21, just to protect others and do it the right way," said Comeaux.

Three decades later, Comeaux's view of law enforcement remains ferociously un-jaded.

As the newly assigned Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston sector, Comeaux views narcotics interdiction in the most fundamental terms - lives preserved and communities restored.

"Often times, you will see these drugs in certain neighborhoods that's just tearing a whole neighborhood apart. That elderly lady who wants to sit on her porch at 80 years old, I want to give her quality of life," said Comeaux.

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With hundreds of agents and local peace officers now under his command, Comeaux must confront the continuing onslaught of deadly, synthetic drugs manufactured and smuggled north by Mexican cartels.

"We are really the first line of defense in protecting the whole entire United States," said Comeaux.

In 2020, Houston Sector seizures of fentanyl, the synthetic opiate 50 times more powerful than Heroin, rose 600 percent.

Seizures of industrial grade, ultra-pure methamphetamine manufactured south of border doubled in a year's time to more than ten tons with much more making it through and into pipes, veins and lethal counterfeit pills.

To those who propose decriminalization, Comeaux counters with the "human cost".

"This year alone, we had 81,000 overdoses. Think if we legalize it. That number will go up from 81,000. I guarantee you, it will double within one year if you legalize it," said Comeaux.

And so the career cop, reared in New Orleans and seasoned on Houston's toughest streets, will continue waging the tough fight, ever mindful of his responsibility as "role model" - an American of color whose earned command of a critical mission with untold lives in the balance.

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"I remember being in the patrol car and talking to kids on the street and hearing them say, 'One day I want to be a policeman like you'. I want that to come back. I want the citizens of Houston, the kids of Houston, to look up to law enforcement," said Comeaux.

The 81,230 overdose deaths between May 2019 and May 2020 represented the most narcotics fatalities in U.S. history for a 12-month period and the primary reason Comeaux begins each work day with the question, "Who are we going to put in jail today?"