Even as federal policy edges toward reform, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to treat marijuana smuggling as an active enforcement priority. In May, the agency released its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), which frames cannabis trafficking within broader cartel activity, noting how transnational criminal organizations exploit regulatory patchworks and state-by-state variations to mask cultivation, transport, and laundering schemes. The report underscores that marijuana trafficking persists alongside synthetics and cocaine, with cartels adapting routes and methods as markets shift.

Operationally, the DEA pursues a two-track approach: dismantling trafficking networks and suppressing illegal domestic cultivation that feeds those networks. Through the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP), federal and state partners seized more than five million cannabis plants in FY2024 and removed thousands of weapons from grow sites—figures the agency highlights as a baseline for ongoing 2025 activity. These actions target both outdoor and sophisticated indoor operations linked to interstate distribution, money laundering, and labor exploitation.

Supply interdiction at the borders remains a pillar, coordinated with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Monthly CBP updates through 2025 show fluctuations but continued multi-ton interdictions across drug categories, including marijuana, reflecting persistent attempts to move bulk loads through commercial crossings and cargo streams. CBP’s public seizure dashboard and monthly summaries provide the near-real-time picture DEA task forces use to prioritize investigations upstream and downstream of border seizures.

Smuggling methods continue to diversify. While overland shipments dominate, parcel and mail streams are a steady vector. DEA partners closely with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to disrupt cannabis shipments in the mail, where investigators pair data analytics with controlled deliveries and dark-web targeting. Postal authorities reiterate that cannabis remains illegal to mail under federal law, irrespective of state legalization—an important point for would-be “small-parcel mules.” Private carriers also cooperate with law enforcement when contraband is detected.

Policy context complicates the picture. The Department of Justice has moved to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a historic shift that—if finalized—would ease research barriers and change tax treatment for state-legal businesses. But rescheduling does not legalize state-to-state commerce, and until federal law is amended, trafficking across borders and through the mails remains a federal crime. Legal and academic trackers note the administrative process is ongoing in late 2025, leaving enforcement frameworks intact in the near term.

Looking ahead, DEA’s cannabis work in 2025 emphasizes: (1) intelligence-driven targeting of transnational supply chains; (2) joint task forces that link border seizures to domestic distributors; (3) pressure on illicit grows that undermine regulated markets; and (4) parcel interdiction and cyber investigations that follow money and metadata rather than just bulk weight. The 2025 NDTA’s through-line is adaptation: as markets and laws evolve, smugglers pivot—and so does enforcement. For consumers and businesses operating in state-legal regimes, the takeaway is stark but practical: federal trafficking laws still govern interstate movement, and DEA’s posture in 2025 continues to prioritize the networks that obscure that line.