Drug and narcotics offenses in San Antonio rose sharply in 2025, but police officials told City Council members this week that the increase does not reflect a surge in drug-related activity.
During a briefing to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, San Antonio Police Department Assistant Chief Jesus Salame Jr. cited crime data reported to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) showing drug and narcotics offenses increased 21.9% in 2025 compared with the year before.
In 2025, 12,466 drug or narcotic offenses were reported, compared to 10,225 in 2024 and 9,418 in 2023. Salame said the increase is driven primarily by expanded proactive enforcement activity conducted by SAPD.
“There have been no changes to reporting the data or to drug laws,” Salame said. “So we’re attributing that rise to an increase in proactive investigations and enforcement.”
He pointed to targeted responses as a central part of that enforcement push, describing a strategy that concentrates patrols and investigations in small geographic areas identified through crime data.
Hot spot policing was a key driver of that effort, stemming from a broader violent crime reduction plan implemented in 2023 and supported by researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The plan uses crime data to deploy rotating teams of covert detectives to targeted areas alongside routine patrol work and longer-term investigations tied to tips and intelligence.
Under that strategy, patrol officers accounted for the majority of drug cases numerically, Salame said, while most large-scale seizures typically followed months-long investigations.
Salame said those investigations are carried out by a network of specialized covert response units designed to target narcotics activity at multiple levels — from street-level dealing to organized trafficking networks.
The units include SAPD’s daytime and evening covert operations teams, retail crimes and human exploitation units, the Texas Anti-Gang Unit, and officers assigned to High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task forces and other multi-agency partnerships. Together, the units focus on suppressing illegal drug possession, manufacturing and distribution, and disrupting narcotics activity tied to transnational trafficking organizations, according to SAPD.
Salame said San Antonio’s proximity to the Mexican border adds a layer of complexity to narcotics enforcement, describing the city as a key distribution point for drug trafficking organizations moving narcotics deeper into the United States.
While specialized investigations focus on organized trafficking, most drug cases identified in 2025 remained possession-level offenses. About 90% of drug and narcotics cases fell into three categories: possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Salame.
In 2025, SAPD reported seizing 1.4 million grams of narcotics — more than 3,000 pounds or around the weight of a small car, Salame said.
By weight, methamphetamine accounted for roughly 73% of all drugs seized last year, followed by marijuana at about 10%. Other substances seized include cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, though police officials described fentanyl as particularly dangerous due to its potency and frequent presence in mixed drugs.
Police officials said the impact of narcotics activity extends beyond drug possession cases, linking trafficking and distribution to gang activity, property crime and violence across the city.
According to SAPD, drug trafficking organizations and street-level networks often rely on violence, weapons offenses and theft to sustain their operations, creating ripple effects that affect surrounding neighborhoods. Methamphetamine abuse, in particular, has been associated with residential burglaries and other property crimes in San Antonio, while cocaine distribution has historically been tied to violent crime.
“The harm spreads far beyond the individual user,” Salame told council members, pointing to the effects on overall community safety.
