Note: HIDTA's FY 1996 investigative resources ($39.5 million) includes intelligence, prosecution, and interdiction resources.

II. METHODOLOGY

• All resources are 100 percent drug-related.

III. PROGRAM SUMMARY

• ONDCP is the President's primary policy office for drug issues, providing advice and government-wide oversight of drug programs and coordination of the President's National Drug Control Strategy. ONDCP is charged with oversight of the HIDTA Program, whose mission is to reduce drug trafficking in the United States. The program strengthens America's drug control efforts by intensifying the impact of drug control agencies by developing partnerships of local, state, and Federal drug control agencies in designated regions and creating systems for them to synchronize their efforts.



• Section 1005 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-690) authorizes the Director of ONDCP to designate areas in the United States as HIDTAs for the purpose of providing increased Federal assistance to alleviate drug-related problems, particularly those with harmful impact in other areas of the Nation.



• Counties in 15 areas have been designated as HIDTAs: Southwest border, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and New York (established in 1990); Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington D.C./Baltimore (established in 1994); Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia/Camden (established in 1995); Pacific Northwest (Washington Cascades), Lake County (Indiana), Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota – focused on methamphetamine use, production, and trafficking), Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming), and Gulf Coast (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) (designated in 1996).



• Typically, a HIDTA consists of:



• An Executive Committee composed of 16 members with an approximately equal number of local/state and Federal officials.



• A major task force consisting of 100 to 300 collocated law enforcement members led by Federal agencies.



• Regional local/state-led collocated drug and money laundering task forces.



• A regional joint intelligence center and information-sharing network.



• Other supporting initiatives to sustain law enforcement

Goal 1: Educate and enable America's youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco.

• The HIDTA Program has a limited number of drug prevention initiatives. Some of these initiatives focus on youth and the communities in which they reside.
;

• All HIDTAs have joint drug task forces that target regional drug trafficking organizations for dismantling and disruption, which increases the safety of America's citizens. Since the program began, the task forces have dismantled major drug trafficking organizations, seized tons of illicit drugs and millions of dollars in currency, and dismantled the hierarchies of significant violent street gangs with major drug trafficking organization connections. HIDTA drug task forces conduct intensive surveillance of drug organizations; infiltrate street gangs; assist prosecutors in developing cases; and use specialized techniques to conduct sophisticated intelligence gathering, wire taps, and investigations.



• The impact of these efforts has increased the safety of America's citizens. For example, in the New York HIDTA, drug gang task forces have dismantled several violent drug gangs and reduced the homicide rate in FY 1996.

• Several HIDTAs have developed initiatives for placing and tracking drug offenders in treatment programs that will reduce costs. For example, the South Florida HIDTA has developed a partnership with the Miami Target Cities Project to build wide-area networks that link and equip all drug treatment providers with an automated program for client intake, treatment matching, referral and placement, and tracking through treatment services, as well as outcome measures and reporting abilities to state and Federal funding sources. This program will greatly improve the tracking of drug offenders, reduce duplication of effort, determine which programs are most effective with abuser populations and eliminate abuse of the treatment system by offenders. In addition, the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA is developing a seamless criminal justice-treatment system that emphasizes graduated sanctions and a continuum of care. This system will reduce costs, especially those related to recidivism and lack of compliance with program requirements.

• The HIDTA Program synthesizes America's drug control efforts in critical drug trafficking areas to shield the Nation's frontiers from the drug threat. By concentrating efforts in critical areas, the program seeks to choke the flow, and thereby shield the Nation, from a flood of drugs. HIDTAs develop border interdiction/intelligence/investigations/prosecution systems that include several initiatives for each element of the system. In a system that shares intelligence, conducts joint investigations, interdicts drugs, and prosecutes drug offenders, the HIDTA Program integrates the efforts of drug control agencies.

• The HIDTA Program empowers America's drug control agencies to collectively achieve levels of success that could not have been achieved by separate efforts. This increases America's impact on the drug trafficking industry. Many HIDTA drug task forces are focused on international and national drug trafficking organizations, including the Los Angeles HIDTA's Southern California Drug Task Force, the South Florida HIDTA's Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Task Force, the Houston HIDTA's Major Drug Squads, several Southwest border and Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands HIDTAs' drug and money laundering task forces, and the New York HIDTA's El Dorado Financial Task Force.

IV. BUDGET SUMMARY

1997 Base Program

• The FY 1997 base program includes $140.2 million for drug-related activities which support all five Goals of the National Drug Control Strategy. Included in this funding is $23 million to establish five new HIDTAs: 1) Gulf Coast (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi); Lake County (Indiana); Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota -- focused on methamphetamine); Pacific Northwest (Washington Cascades); and Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming).

• The total FY 1998 drug control budget request is $140.2 million. No program enhancements are being requested.

V. PROGRAM STATISTICS

	1996 Actual	1997 Estimate	1998 Projected
HIDTA ($ in Millions)
Houston	$9.6	$9.4	TBD
Los Angeles	11.5	11.7	TBD
Miami	12.7	13.2	TBD
New York	9.9	9.5	TBD
Southwest border	35.7	35.3	TBD
Washington/Baltimore	12.2	11.9	TBD
Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands	9.0	9.1	TBD
Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia-Camden	2.4	2.7	TBD
New HIDTAs	0.0	23.0	TBD
National Institute of Justice	0.0	0.2	--
Discretionary	0.0	14.2	--
Total	$103.0	$140.2	$140.2

VI. PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Developed effective partnerships. In FY 1996, intensified the impact of America's drug control efforts by developing equal partnerships of local, state, and Federal agencies in the most critical drug trafficking areas. This concept is key to integrating drug control efforts and building partnerships because, not only do HIDTA drug task force members meet regularly and work together to solve cases, they work side by side each day, which provides valuable opportunities to share information and resources, develop lasting teamwork, and conduct cross training.



• Created joint supporting systems. In FY 1996, empowered HIDTA partners to synchronize their efforts by creating joint systems for them to work together and share resources, including intelligence and information, manpower, and technology. In the HIDTA system, agencies have a mechanism to communicate and quickly adapt to fluctuating drug trafficking patterns, an ability that increasingly becomes important as drug traffickers use more complicated schemes and methods to bring illicit drugs into the United States. The HIDTA Program enables drug control agencies to pioneer new ways of collaboration and push the envelope to communicate more rapidly and effectively and actively share resources, such as intelligence, manpower, and equipment. As partnerships develop, agents from different agencies hand off cases to each other and conduct cross-case analysis.



• Highlights. In FY 1996, advanced the National Drug Control Strategy and synchronized some of the Nation's drug control efforts. The South Florida HIDTA reported that of the 250 drug trafficking and 129 money laundering organizations identified in its threat assessment, 72 drug and money laundering organizations were dismantled and 4 were disrupted. The Los Angeles HIDTA reported that of the 280 major drug distribution organizations targeted, 79 were dismantled and 65 were severely disrupted. The Los Angeles HIDTA drug task forces, led by the Southern California Drug Task Force, completed Operation Zorro II, in coordination with DEA headquarters and field offices throughout the country, to dismantle two major sophisticated cocaine trafficking organizations -- the Alapizco and the Guiterrez organizations -- that distributed multi-ton shipments of cocaine throughout the United States.