Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

Remarks as Delivered

Thanks, Greg, for that generous introduction. And for your leadership of this office.

I came here to talk with our prosecutors and law enforcement leaders who are gathered at this table. They are working together every day as partners in confronting violent crime and protecting the citizens of Wisconsin.

When I became Attorney General three and a half years ago, I knew that the most powerful tool we would have to address violent crime would be partnerships like these. That was my experience when I was a line attorney prosecuting violent crime and narcotics in the early 1990s. That was my experience when I was a supervisor at the Justice Department organizing and supervising our activities in that regard later in the 1990s.

So, we built an anti-violent crime strategy rooted in strengthening our collaboration across federal law enforcement; with state and local law enforcement; and with the communities that all of us serve.

And we fortified those partnerships by bringing to bear the latest technologies for identifying and prosecuting the criminals who represent the greatest danger to our communities.

We have deployed our anti-violent crime strategy here in Wisconsin and across the country to arrest violent felons, to disrupt violent drug trafficking, and to prosecute the repeat offenders who are most responsible for driving violent crime.

For this U.S. Attorney’s Office, that has meant working with state, local, and Tribal law enforcement, as well as with our federal partner agencies, to stop the flow of fentanyl into Wisconsin communities.

Here in Milwaukee, and across the country, this work is paying off. A few months ago, the Milwaukee Police Department released promising data indicating a 10% drop in overall crime and a 39% drop in homicides in the first quarter of this year as compared to the first quarter of 2023.

And nationwide, last year we saw one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years. That included the largest drop in homicides in 50 years. And according to a recent report, the first six months of this year show further declines in violent crime across 40 American cities.

But we know that progress may be uneven in many communities is. And of course, there is no level of violent crime that is acceptable.

That is why this office is not relaxing its efforts. It is continuing to pursue investigations and prosecutions that keep the people of Wisconsin safe.

In March of this year, working with the Oshkosh Police Department, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), this office secured a nine-year sentence for a man who illegally possessed a firearm. Last year, children had called 911 to a residence in Oshkosh after that defendant pointed a gun at them and used his gun to hit their mother so hard that he wounded her scalp. The defendant was arrested by a SWAT team after a nearly six-hour standoff.

In May, this office successfully convicted four men for multiple pharmacy robberies in Milwaukee. The men used handguns to threaten pharmacy staff and stole significant quantities of controlled substances, intending to distribute them.

The office is also working relentlessly to disrupt the flow of fentanyl into Wisconsin communities.

In April, this office worked with the Brown County Drug Task Force, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the ATF to secure a 25-year sentence for a Green Bay man responsible for distributing counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl, resulting in the deaths of two teenagers.

And last month, the office worked with those same three law enforcement agencies to secure a 20-year sentence for another man who distributed fentanyl to a teenager who died as a result. The defendant described himself as a “middler,” one who connected customers to a larger drug distributer. The Justice Department has made clear that we are committed to breaking apart every link in the fentanyl chain.

This office also worked to successfully prosecute a man from Appleton for fentanyl crimes. This man distributed nearly 1 million fentanyl pills in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. He even bragged that “There’s not a single pill in the Valley” — referring to Fox Valley — “that doesn’t have my name on it.” Last month, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In that same month, this office secured a 12-year sentence of a man responsible for fentanyl crimes in Menominee and Ho-Chunk Tribal communities. We know how hard the fentanyl epidemic has hit Tribal communities. That is why we are working alongside law enforcement in Tribal communities to end it. I am grateful to the Menominee Tribal Police Department, the Central Wisconsin Narcotics Task Force, the FBI, and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory for helping us secure that conviction.

Fentanyl is the deadliest drug this country has ever faced. And this office will continue to use every tool at its disposal to go after all those who profit from this deadly epidemic.

I know that this U.S. Attorney’s Office will not rest until every person, in every neighborhood, in every community in Wisconsin is safe from violent crime.

I also know that these examples are just a snapshot of the work this office does every day to fulfill the Justice Department’s mission to keeping our country safe, keeping our communities safe, protecting civil rights, and upholding the rule of law.

I am very proud of the work of U.S. Attorney Haanstad and all the men and women of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. I am equally proud of the partnerships they have nurtured with the federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that work every day to keep the people of Wisconsin safe.