FBI Director Kash Patel was in Kentucky today.

He was joined by Congressman Hal Rogers of Kentucky's fifth district.

Together, they attended a law enforcement appreciation luncheon in Manchester.

Director Patel and Congressman Rogers celebrated the progress the FBI and local law enforcement have made, reducing fentanyl and child trafficking in the state.

What we do at the FBI is simply resource the mission where it's needed.

And thanks to the chairman highlighting the specific needs of Eastern Kentucky, the FBI is here with our great leadership team, in Louisville and our chassis there and our headquarters components to have served resources here.

And specifically speaking, we've seized enough fentanyl with our state and local partners here in Kentucky that would have killed nearly 1 million Kentuckians.

And that's a large, large number.

We've also done an immense amount of work to reduce the number of child traffickers coming in and through the state of Kentucky.

So while they may be happening locally here and in rural areas, it's all interconnected to a bigger operation criminally, from without Kentucky and also across our borders.

So the FBI is committed to working with state and local law enforcement.

And when I asked them is what they're already doing, they've got the best Intel on the ground, especially in the rural communities.

They're sharing it with us and it's getting to our offices.

And then we're putting out the task forces like the Homeland Security Task Force and other task forces necessary to combat that, which is why you're seeing the historic results that we've been talking about.

Congressman Rogers also announced a $20 million investment in communication equipment for law enforcement in Eastern and southern Kentucky.

He said the equipment will help ensure the department can communicate in the mountains during natural disasters.