In the year since the Aurora Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration partnered to crack down on drug trafficking in Aurora, the amount of seized fentanyl and other deadly drugs has spiked in the city, according to authorities.

In a joint news conference between the APD and the DEA on Monday, officials touted efforts to reduce overdose deaths in Aurora and across the country They emphasized there is still a lot of work to be done.

About a week ago, the city police responded to a drug overdose death of a young man just 200 yards from the police headquarters, Chief Todd Chamberlain said.

Aurora saw 105 drug overdose deaths in 2024, 110 in 2025 and 26 year-to-date in 2026. The latter number hopefully shows a declining trend in overdose deaths in Aurora, Chamberlain said.

In 2024, APD merged its fugitive and narcotics units to help officials focus on narcotic trafficking operations.

In 2025, APD dedicated an investigator to the DEA to build a stronger relationship between the organizations.

Since then, the DEA has contributed to 162 arrests in Aurora for drug-related crimes, national fugitives and immigration, DEA Rocky Mountain Division Special Agent in Charge David Olesky said.

Several weeks ago, DEA officials arrested two people in Aurora connected to an auto theft ring linked to La Linea cartel in Mexico, he added.

DEA officials seized more than 1.4 million fentanyl pills and 244 kilograms of methamphetamine in Aurora last year, Olesky said.

APD officials seized almost 60,000 grams of fentanyl, more than 74,000 grams of methamphetamine, more than 2,000 grams of cocaine and more than 4,000 grams of heroin in 2025, Chamberlain said.

The amount of seized fentanyl and meth spiked between 2024 and 2025, when officials partnered with the DEA to crack down on drug enforcement.

In 2024, APD officials seized more than 17,000 grams of fentanyl and 7,000 grams of methamphetamine.

Chamberlain called the significant spike in the amount of meth seized — from 7,000 grams in 2024 to 74,000 grams in 2025 — “the most drastic and concerning” of the drug seizure numbers.

APD officers made 319 drug-related arrests in 2024 and 571 in 2025, Chamberlain said. Year-to-date in 2026, officers have made 116 drug-related arrests.

“It is clear that we have more enforcement work to be done,” Olesky said.

In addition to enforcement, the DEA and APD have also held a variety of education campaigns to talk to school-aged kids about drugs, he said.

Educational campaigns included the DEA’s “Fentanyl Free America,” launched in December to educate the public about the “devastating impacts of fentanyl, which claimed nearly 50,000 lives last year,” a DEA news release said.

“Through our fentanyl free initiative and our partnership with Chief Chamberlain and the Aurora Police Department, it is our goal for Aurora to be an example of how best to address this threat, which continues to face our nation and to make Aurora fentanyl free,” Olesky said.