(The Lion) — In the nine months since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has arrested more than 120,000 criminals nationwide, thanks to the partnership of federal, state and local officers, Trump announced on Thursday from the White House.

Of these arrests, 3,200 gang leaders and drug dealers have been “taken off the street,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The gangs include MS 13, Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua (TdA).

The arrests follow Trump’s creation of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), which includes the Departments of Justice, War, and Homeland Security, as well as intelligence organizations, and state and local agencies across the country, Trump said.

“Under the Trump administration, we’re finally treating the cartels as the core national security threat that they really are. The cartels are waging war on America, and just as I promised in the campaign, we’re waging war on them like they’ve never seen before,” the president said, referencing his executive orders to create the HSTF and to target cartels.

Trump called the cartels terrorist organizations of the West.

“These are the worst of the worst. It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said. “In addition to their monstrous violence – such as cutting off heads, burning their enemies alive and burning innocent people alive too – they maintain vast arsenals of weapons and soldiers, and they use extortion, murder, kidnapping to exercise political and economic control.”

Bondi said HSTF was the “brain-child” of U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and is only possible because of the commitment of all the people involved.

“I don’t think another administration in our nation’s history has worked so well together,” she said. “We talk constantly.”

Director of the FBI Kash Patel said that when he calls any member of this force, whom he called his “friends,” he “doesn’t get a voicemail” because they answer immediately.

Bondi said in the last month the task force has seized more than 91 tons of drugs, including 58,000 kilos of cocaine, 2,300 kilos of fentanyl powder and 2.1 million fentanyl pills. She also said more than 1,000 illegal guns have been seized.

The staggering numbers reflect “lives saved by the millions,” Patel said. The amount of fentanyl confiscated was “enough to kill over 200 million Americans.”

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in its first 43 days, the task force executed more than 400 operations. She said two million Americans have died from drug overdose since 2000, but the administration has cut the amount of fentanyl smuggled across America’s borders by 50%.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said his department spent “decades” defending other countries, but he is proud to defend the United States.

“If you talk to the troops down say on the southwest border, Mr. President, morale is sky high,” Hegseth said. “It continues to be because they’re proud to be defending their own communities, their own state, and their own country.”

He said the Department of War has 10,000 troops to “lockdown” the southern border and stop the invasion. Hegseth said the mission of the DOW is to “defend the homeland” and make “American communities safer.”

He referenced the sabotage and destruction of boats, carrying illegal drugs across the Pacific to sell in the U.S., as a key priority of this defense.

“Every boat we strike is 25,000 Americans whose lives are saved because of the drugs that were headed in our direction,” Hegseth said. “So, our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated Al Qaeda. We will find you. We will map your networks. We will hunt you down and we will kill you.”

In addition to HSTF, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Trump created a “national intelligence fusion” that creates a direct path of communication between intelligence and law enforcement.

This communication led to the arrest of a CJNG Cartel “baby trafficker called La Diabla,” she said. La Diabla allegedly performed illegal cesarean sections on pregnant women to harvest and sell newborn babies’ organs.

Miller said for decades Americans and leaders have believed cartels are untouchable, but now Trump is “the only American leader ever” to fight and seek to eradicate the cartels.

“Your vision and your leadership in declaring war on the drug cartels is the single most successful public safety initiative in American history,” he said, addressing the president.