Museum Unveils New Exhibit: Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy
In the 1990s, DEA enacted the Kingpin Strategy to target drug trafficking organizations’ most vulnerable areas: leadership, production, distribution, and assets. The Museum’s new exhibit showcases drug smuggling tools and other artifacts highlighting the strategy’s disruption, dismantling, and destruction of illegal operations.
The DEA Museum’s new exhibit, Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy, spotlights the Kingpin Strategy, a program that attacked drug trafficking organizations’ most vulnerable areas.
This fall, the DEA Museum unveiled a new exhibit spotlighting the Kingpin Strategy: a program enacted in the 1990s to attack drug trafficking organizations’ most vulnerable areas. On display are drug smuggling tools and seized assets that highlight the strategy’s disruption and dismantling of illegal operations around the world. Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy is open for a limited time, so see it before it’s gone!
Taking down major drug trafficking organizations is tough. It requires extensive planning, intelligence gathering, and often the support of global law enforcement partners. DEA Administrator Robert Bonner set up the Kingpin Strategy in 1992 to target the largest, most violent drug trafficking organizations. The program sought to dismantle these groups by disrupting their leadership, production, distribution, and assets: resources and networks essential for moving and selling dangerous drugs.
The exhibit features stories and photos from major cases, like the arrest of Baz Mohammad, the first drug kingpin extradited from Afghanistan. Cartels often grow and produce illegal drugs outside the United States and set up intricate smuggling networks to transport them into the country. These organizations operate vertically, meaning the boss, or kingpin, leads the group with the help of key lieutenants. Targeting cartels’ leadership, which is difficult to replace, grinds these operations to a halt.
But catching drug smugglers is not easy. They constantly invent new ways to move drugs. Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy includes some of the most creative, but ultimately unsuccessful, smuggling tools. A vehicle battery with a hidden compartment, an unsuspecting Paddington bear, and even a goldfish destined for a San Francisco aquarium all concealed drugs—until DEA agents, law enforcement partners, and everyday citizens discovered them.
Encounter the stories and artifacts behind the Kingpin Strategy today at the DEA Museum!
The DEA Museum is located at 700 Army Navy Drive in Arlington, Virginia. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., admission is free.
The exhibit includes stories from major cases, like the arrest of Baz Mohammad, pictured here during his extradition to the United States from Afghanistan in 2005.
On display are some of the most creative, but ultimately unsuccessful, smuggling tools. This goldfish was shipped from Shanghai, China, with an ounce of heroin sown into it. Before reaching an aquarium in San Francisco, the drugs were discovered.