(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Drug Enforcement Agency is wrapping up a year-long investigation that identified connections between Mexican drug cartels and communities in Iowa and elsewhere. Emily Murray, spokeswoman for the D-E-A Regional Office in Omaha, says Operation Last Mile provided valuable information. Murray says they pinpointed the different places where the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have infiltrated. She says “they’re pushing their poisons to our citizens.”

Murray says the illegal, dangerous drugs are landing everywhere and there’s really nowhere in the U-S that isn’t being touched by fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs. In the last year, investigators from the Omaha office linked 26 cases directly to the cartels. They made 87 arrests and seized 60 firearms tied to the cartels.