AURORA | Aurora police and federal drug enforcement officials say collaborative efforts to stymie the flow of drugs into the city have been effective and critically important to continue.
“In 2024 we modified how the Aurora Police Department operates,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters Monday at a press conference. “We wanted to be not reactive, but proactive.”
Chamberlain was joined by Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge David Olesky, who said that APD assigning an Aurora officer to the cause was instrumental in busting drug sales and even preventing them before fentanyl, meth and other drugs got into the hands of users.
The focus on APD working with federal drug agents comes amid controversy among local and state governments considering limits on such local police and federal agent collaborations linked to issues surrounding immigration.
Neither Chamberlain nor Olesky talked about immigration or mass-deportation, but focused on renewed efforts to seek out drug sales and interrupt them.
Aurora police reported confiscating about three times as much fentanyl as they did last year in the city. In 2024, police reported seizing about 37 pounds of fentanyl. Last year, police confiscated more than 112 pounds of the drug, Chamberlain said Monday.
Police said they saw an even larger jump in the amount of meth seized over the past two years. In 2024, police and federal agents seized about 16 pounds of meth from Aurora enforcement. Last year, that amount mushroomed to more than 163 pounds of the drug.
Chamberlain said the spike in confiscated drugs is a reflection in increased enforcement rather than just being attributed to more drugs heading into the region.
State officials say the phenomenon and the success in seizures isn’t limited to Aurora, however.
In 2025, more than 8.7 million fentanyl pills were seized in Colorado and the mountain west states, In addition, local and federal police confiscated about 3,100 pounds of meth, local DEA spokesperson Steffan Tubbs said in a statement in January.
“These numbers are absolutely staggering,” Olesky said in the January statement. “Colorado saw a 76% increase in pill seizures year-over-year. Utah pill seizures doubled. This should not only be a wake-up call, but a jolt to every citizen in our four-state region.”
Chamberlain said the stunning numbers can be misleading in that the deaths and overdoses linked to the drug sales are too often overlooked.
He said he accompanied local police on a call near police headquarters a few days ago after reports of an unconscious man.
A homeless man, who’d been contacted previously by police because of drug use, died from a drug overdose while he was just a couple hundred yards from city hall in a muddy culvert.
“That is no way for anybody to live,” Chamberlain said. “It is no way for anybody to die.”
Chamberlain said intercepting drugs before they get into the hands of users is the focus behind the APD and DEA partnership.
“Our relationship with the DEA is, without question,” critical to the mission, Chamberlain said.
Drug-related arrests also climbed significantly. Police made 571 Aurora drug arrests in 2025, up from 319 the year before, reflecting a 79% increase, police reported.
In the first months of 2026, the department has already recorded 116 arrests, Chamberlain said.
State and federal officials also reported a significant increase in arrests linked to drug trafficking.
Both Chamberlain and Olesky said that despite gains in enforcement, it’s not enough.
Olesky highlighted the DEA’s “Fentanyl Free America Initiative,” which focuses on protection, prevention and support. The campaign includes law enforcement operations, international investigations targeting supply chains and educational outreach in communities and schools.
Olesky said agents work to visit schools to warn students about the dangers of drugs and fentanyl in particular.
“I might be the first person who has ever talked to them about drugs,” he said of some high school students. “That should not happen.”
He said old memes and tropes of drug sales being clandestine transactions in dark alleys or behind Dumpsters are long gone.
Instead of buying drugs on the street, many teens get them via social media and messaging apps, even delivered and then overdosing in their rooms or at school, drug prevention experts say.
“Kids are dying in the comfort of their own home,” Olesky said.
National data suggests the national overdose crisis may be easing slightly, though officials stress the threat remains severe. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in October 2025 fell to about 68,000 nationwide, down from roughly 110,000 in 2023.
Chamberlain said he wants to sustain and even strengthen the partnership between local police and DEA agents, working to stem the flow of drugs and drug use.
“If individuals are bringing narcotics into the city of Aurora that harm this community,” Chamberlain said, “the Aurora Police Department will do everything in its power to stop that.”