ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Law enforcement from around the state gathered to meet with the country’s top prosecutor. 

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland met tribal and local law enforcement to talk about his office’s efforts to tackle violent crime. 

Most of the meeting was behind closed doors, but Garland says his office is working to target violent crime and the fentanyl crisis. 

He called fentanyl the deadliest drug threat to the U.S. and he says the Department of Justice is working to fight it. 

Locally, he says, according to Albuquerque Police Department, there was a 19% decrease in homicides from 2022 to 2023. And a 41% decrease in robberies from 2022 to 2023. 

According to Garland, that’s consistent with the rest of the country. He also gave examples of some work the U.S. attorney is doing here in New Mexico.

“Last month, working with the Albuquerque Police Department, ATF and FBI, this U.S. Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted a felon who unlawfully possessed a firearm and shot a woman in the back of the head at a Walmart. She survived, but she required emergency surgery and extensive rehabilitation,” said Garland. 

He’s talking about Maurice Lacey. Back in 2022, police say he broke into a Walmart break room and shot his now ex-wife in the head. He then told workers he just shot his wife. In July, Lacey was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. 

Garland also talked about a drug-related arrest in the metro. 

“Working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Homeland Security Investigations, ICE and the New Mexico State Police, this office secured a 14-year sentence for a man who was caught with more than 19 pounds of fentanyl in his hotel room,” Garland said. 

That was Eric Jaramillo. Police say he was running out of his hotel room when he impaled himself on a wrought iron fence in 2022.

Police say they found almost 20 pounds of fentanyl and two firearms in the room. He pleaded guilty to possession and an intent to distribute. 

The U.S. attorney general says arrests like these are made with inter-agency cooperation. He’s got several similar visits planned around the country this week as well.