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IV. Agency Budget Summaries

INTERAGENCY CRIME AND DRUG ENFORCEMENT


  1. RESOURCE SUMMARY

  2. METHODOLOGY

    • The Interagency Crime and Drug Enforcement (ICDE) appropriation provides resources in support of Department of Justice agencies that participate in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Program. Given this, the resources are considered to be 100 percent drug related.

  3. PROGRAM SUMMARY

    • The OCDETF Program directly responds to two goals of the National Drug Control Strategy -- Goal 2 - Increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence; and Goal 5 - Break foreign and domestic drug sources of supply. The prosecution and research and development functions are fully devoted to Goal 2. The investigations and intelligence functions are split between Goal 2 (estimated at 20 percent) and Goal 5 (estimated at 80 percent).

    • The OCDETF Program constitutes a nationwide structure of 9 regional Task Forces which utilize the combined resources and expertise of its member federal agencies, in cooperation with state and local investigators and prosecutors, to target major narcotic trafficking and money laundering organizations. The ICDE appropriation provides reimbursement to the Department of Justice agencies and components that participate in the program. Beginning in FY 1998, the U.S. Coast Guard, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, each of which previously received reimbursements from this appropriation, will be funded in other appropriation accounts.

    • The mission of the OCDETF Program is to identify, investigate, and prosecute members of high-level drug trafficking and related enterprises, and to dismantle or disrupt the operations of those organizations. Dismantle means to eliminate the criminal organization or break it up to the extent that reconstruction of the same criminal organization is impossible. Disrupt means to cause significant interference in the conduct of business by the targeted criminal organization.

    • The general goals of the OCDETF Program are:

      1. Supplement federal resources for the investigation and prosecution of major drug trafficking and related organizations; and

      2. Foster improved interagency coordination and cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of major drug trafficking and related cases.

  4. BUDGET SUMMARY

    1998 Program

    • The 1998 program for the Department of Justice agencies participating in the OCDETF program totals $295 million, 3,015 positions and 2,960 FTEs. These resources are used to reimburse the various Justice agencies for drug-related law enforcement programs in support of the following goals under the National Drug Control Strategy.

    Goal 2: Increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence.

    • OCDETF program funding for Goal 2 activities totals $122.9 million and support the following functions:

    • Investigations. An estimated $40.2 million of the total $201.2 million in investigations funding in the OCDETF program supports domestic investigations focused on the organized criminal drug trafficking and the breakup of organized criminal enterprises in the U.S. This includes the seizure and forfeiture of assets of organized criminal enterprises involved in narcotics trafficking.

    • Intelligence. An estimated $2.8 million of the nearly $14 million in intelligence funding in the OCDETF program supports domestic intelligence efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for Regional Drug Intelligence Squads (RDIS). The mission of the RDIS is to establish multi-agency squads to gather, analyze, and disseminate raw and processed data for strategic, tactical, and operational intelligence support of OCDETF investigations and/or potential OCDETF investigations. They also provide the regional intelligence linkage to the National Drug Intelligence Center and to respective agency headquarters. Squads have been established in the following cities: Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, Chicago, and Atlanta.

    • Prosecutions. $79.4 million in OCDETF funding is used to reimburse the U.S. Attorneys, Criminal Division, and Tax Division for their investigative support and prosecutorial efforts towards OCDETF cases. Litigation efforts are targeted selectively on the criminal leadership involved in drug trafficking and are intended to dissolve organized illicit enterprises. This includes activities designed to secure the seizure and forfeiture of the assets of these enterprises.

    • A fundamental purpose of the prosecution effort is to apply limited federal prosecutive resources against those targets where successful prosecution can have the greatest and most lasting effect on the nation's drug abuse problem. The centralized and organized nature of the drug trade mandates that the federal law enforcement and prosecution establishment incorporate successful experiences in combating organized crime. It also extends the successful OCDETF concept of actively targeting and pursuing the highest level drug offenders.

    • Research and Development. Approximately $0.4 million in OCDETF program funding provides reimbursement to the necessary research and development projects that support the various intelligence and investigative activities of Federal law enforcement agencies.

    Goal 5: Break foreign and domestic drug sources of supply.

    • OCDETF program funding for Goal 5 activities totals $172.1 million and support the following functions:

    • Investigations. An estimated $160.9 million of the total $201.2 million in investigations funding in the OCDETF program supports investigations focused on organized international criminal drug trafficking and the breakup of those international organized criminal enterprises engaged in the drug production and trafficking.

    • Intelligence. An estimated $11.2 million of the nearly $14 million in intelligence funding in the OCDETF program supports international intelligence efforts by the FBI and the DEA. This intelligence data directly supports efforts to dismantle international drug production and trafficking organizations.

    1999 Request

    • The FY 1999 request for $304 million will maintain the FY 1998 level of effort for the various OCDETF programs that support Goal 2 and Goal 5 of the National Drug Control Strategy.

  5. PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS

    • Since 1982, the OCDETF program has demonstrated its proficiency and diversity against major drug traffickers, drug-related violent offenders, gangs, money laundering organizations, and corrupt public officials. It has sponsored investigations involving all categories of drugs and numerous trafficking methods and techniques. OCDETF investigations demonstrate the success of the federal interagency approach in conjunction with the efforts of State and local law enforcement agencies. Some recent examples of the significance and diversity of OCDETF cases are described below.

      • On January 31, 1997, Juan Garcia-Abrego, a major narcotics trafficker based in Mexico, was sentenced to serve 11 concurrent life sentences for drug trafficking, 9 concurrent 20-year sentences on money laundering charges, and ordered to pay more than $128 million in fines and $350 million in forfeiture. Last October, Garcia-Abrego was convicted of importing tonnage quantities of marijuana and cocaine into the United States over a ten year period.

      • "Operation Zorro II" was the first major "takedown" under the Southwest Border Initiative. This eight-month investigation involved unprecedented cooperation from 10 federal law enforcement agencies, more than 40 state and local agencies, and 14 U.S. Attorney's Offices. This case was unique in law enforcement's targeting both ends of the drug structure -- the Cartel in Colombia where the drugs originated, and the Mexican-run transportation system that smuggled the cocaine into the United States and introduced it into the web of Colombian and Mexican distribution systems that would carry it across the country. Zorro II resulted in the dismantling of the Colombian and Mexican importation, transportation, and distribution networks operating in the United States, and also some of the client drug trafficking organizations who bought the powder cocaine and, in some instances, transformed it into crack cocaine which was sold on the streets of Richmond, Virginia, and areas of New York. To date, 102 defendants have been indicted and 49 have been convicted. The defendants included the leaders of the Colombian, Mexican, and client "crack" organizations, as well as their many criminal confederates and subordinates, including United States police officers and a National Guardsman who served as couriers, or who are alleged to have provided security and protection services for the Mexican distributors in the New York City area. A total of 5,590 kilograms of cocaine, 730 grams of crack cocaine, almost $20 million in drug proceeds and assets, and 16 firearms were seized in the Zorro II operation.

      • "Operation Crackshot." This Midwest OCDETF operation resulted in the conviction and/or cooperation of over 70 individuals connected with gangs trafficking crack cocaine and victimizing the public housing projects of Peoria, Illinois. The combined investigative expertise and resources of the FBI, IRS, U.S. Marshals Service, Illinois State Police, Peoria County Sheriff, and City of Peoria Police, was focused on two large Chicago-based drug trafficking organizations, the "Gangster Disciples" and the "Vice Lords". Crackshot was coordinated with similar OCDETF cases in Chicago and elsewhere. Violent crime in the Peoria housing projects was down approximately 70 percent this past winter.

      • In "Operation Pacific Mariner", seven people were indicted in the Central District of California on February 5, 1997, charging them with conspiracy and drug trafficking offenses in connection with seizures of 25 tons of hashish by law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Australia, and Canada. The 171_2 tons of hashish seized by United States authorities represents the largest quantity ever confiscated, reflecting an estimated wholesale value of more than $150 million.

      • "Operation Cornerstone". In South Florida, following a 2-year OCDETF/HIDTA investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Customs Service, and the DEA, 58 individuals were charged with RICO (18 U.S.C.§§1961-68), and federal narcotics and money laundering offenses. The indictment charged the leadership of the Cali Cartel, Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, his brother Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, Helmer Herrera-Buitrago and Jose Santacruz-Londono, and their lieutenants, advisers, and underlings, with importing and distributing more than 20 tons of cocaine; obstructing justice; murder of a cooperating witness; and the laundering of narcotics trafficking proceeds. The indictment charges several attorneys with arranging for representation and subsistence payments for arrested cartel workers in exchange for their agreeing not to cooperate and to falsely exonerate the cartel leadership; relaying threats from the leadership to the arrested workers; falsifying documentary evidence for use in a civil forfeiture trial, among other criminal acts. Operation Cornerstone has severely impaired the operations of the cartel and has removed many of its critical players in the United States.