How DEA special ops combat Mexican cartels' illicit drug pipeline years after El Chapo takedown

CHICAGO (WLS) -- In Mexico, the drug cartels now control more than a third of the entire nation and in Chicago, those cartels enlist gangs to control streets and lock down neighborhoods citywide.

The war on drugs is now more than 50 years old, but the fight to end the poisoning of another generation continues on.

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The Drug Enforcement Administration is on the front lines as law enforcement and communities work to defeat the decades-long menace.

In 2015, DEA subdued the world's most prolific drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

And while his Sinaloa cartel rages on, DEA's Special Response Team is running up against drug dealers with powerful weapons and full basement labs cranking out tens of thousands of pills.

"Through the conflicts overseas a lot lessons were learned in the military. So, we were able to modify that into what we do here," said Chris Geer, supervisor of DEA-Chicago's Special Response Team.

Geer heads up the sessions at the Multi Agency Academic Cooperative or MAAC, a nonprofit first responder training facility tucked away in Valparaiso, Indiana.

"Because if something goes bad, people aren't going to rise to the occasion, they're going to fall to the level of their training." Geer said the campus offers a safe space to run through worst case scenarios.

"For SRT to get involved, there has to be a threat matrix. So, we're only going after the most violent people in the history of gun use, history of resisting the police, and also people that maybe the enforcement team that's actually worked up the case doesn't think that they can necessarily handle."

SRT is DEA's elite force, with 23 of these teams across the country.

The one training facility in Northwest Indiana serves Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Those operators are trained in surprise-entry tactics, weapons systems and defensive strategies.

The threats are constantly evolving along with the weapons that have changed over the last decade.

"It's, it's drastically changed. There's switches on Glocks now, and they can be fully automatic. And there's other threats of that nature," explained Geer.

Recently, SRT in Wisconsin executed a warrant targeting a military grade portable rocket offered, according to authorities, as payment for pounds of methamphetamine.

In South Bend, Indiana the team was called in to assist with a drug bust that unearthed an arsenal of guns, cash and an illegal fentanyl pill operation in a home basement.

Federal authorities said the warrants were executed safely and arrests were made in both cases.

But Geer said a major focus of this team is the international illicit drug pipeline run by Mexican cartels and the deadly fentanyl-laced pills flooding Chicago and the Midwest.

"Who's bringing the dope and who's controlling the overseas markets, bringing the dope into the states. And then once it's here, how to neutralize that level of player more than your street dealers," he said.

New DEA intelligence reports obtained by the I-Team describe the opioid epidemic as "dire and of grave concern."

As the I-Team has reported in recent years, the intel cites a majority of illicit sales on two cartels, Sinaloa and the New Generation with Chicago, a mega-hub for both-peddling Mexican fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine.

Mike Albertus, a political science professor with the University of Chicago, told the I-Team the drug trafficking organizations are smart, and savvy and they have managed to keep their business running by being nimble.

"In some cases, in some ways you could say it's sort of a game of cat and mouse. And you know the drug markets have changed dramatically, the drugs that people are consuming have changed dramatically. While law enforcement has been after that it's also been difficult to keep a handle on it because these are listed economies and the people are doing things in ways that are not easy to detect," said Albertus.

As the drug battle wages on there is progress. For the first time in more than five years there is a national decrease in overdose deaths.

According to the DEA, fatal ODs fell 14.5% last year to this past June.

This is attributed to less lethal fentanyl pills coming from Mexico and also to Naloxone injections being widely available to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.

Demand and production may not be down; but in a criminal world measured by deaths, fewer of them is considered a good thing.