

With fewer arrests and seizures, agents do not have to be off the street to fill out reports and paperwork and appear in court, Donovan said in an interview last week.īy clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. The hike in illegal drug prices is also a result of effectiveness of enforcement against the illegal marketplace in narcotics, officials say.ĭEA statistics also show that seizures of drugs and drugs arrests on Long Island and in New York are way down, even though there are more agents in the street. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration, from which the figures come, has long had a policy of making street buys to follow the price of drugs. The price of cocaine went from a low of $28,000 a kilogram, which is equivalent to 2.2 pounds, to up to $34,000 heroin from an average of $50,000 a kilogram to as much as $56,000 and methamphetamine from $12 a gram to $15 a gram in recent months, officials say. The price of marijuana has gone up an average of 55% from a low of $800 a pound to as much as $1,600 a pound this March compared to March of last year, officials said. “In our line of work, drug prices are the telltale sign of a change in supply and demand,” said Ray Donovan, the head of the New York office of the DEA, which also covers Long Island. “It’s not surprising that illegal business would have problems, as legitimate businesses do, because of the coronavirus." Investigators point to a number of factors, including dealers who are reluctant to meet with clients for fears of contracting the potentially deadly virus the high risk of transporting drugs and the chemicals needed to make the drugs across international borders and across the country as airlines have halted flights and borders have been shut down and drug addicts not able to travel out of Long Island and New York City due to the lockdown ordered by Gov. The price of illegal drugs on Long Island and in New York City has increased markedly because of a decreasing supply chain due to the coronavirus pandemic, federal officials say.
