The correlation between drugs and crime is high. Drug
users commit crimes at several times the rate of people
who do not use drugs. More than 51 percent of inmates
reported substance abuse while committing the offense
that led to their conviction.32 The heavy toll drug abuse
exacts on the United States is reflected in related criminal
and medical costs totaling over $67 billion. Almost 70
percent of this figure is attributable to the cost of crime.33
In twenty years, the drug trade has risen from a cottage
industry into a global enterprise. In the last five years, particularly,
U.S. drug-control agencies confronted several
key trends that reflect the force of the global drug trade.
Today’s drug trade is arguably more corrupt and powerful
than any criminal enterprise in history. Largely
because of its vast profits and corrosive influence, the
drug trade now has the capacity to undermine democratic
institutions, support anti-government movements,
weaken national economies, and threaten the safety and
health of entire nations. The drug trade has produced the
world’s most sophisticated criminal organizations. In
addition to their wealth, these organizations have virtually
unlimited resources and access to top talent in infrastructure
areas like as finance, transportation, distribution,
security, and technology. There has been an exponential
decrease in the time required for a drug organization to
reach its peak of power after initially forming. For
instance, the La Cosa Nostra matured in the United States
over fifty years and outlaw motorcycle gangs developed
over decades. By contrast, the Medellin Cartel reached its
peak in under twenty years, the Cali drug mafia in 10
years, and Mexico’s drug syndicates were at their optimal
level in under a decade. Due to advances in communication
and travel, drug organizations have the capacity to
develop new alliances and open trafficking routes in
regions that were inaccessible even a decade ago.
U.S. law-enforcement agencies must work hard to keep
pace with these accelerated trends. For example, they
must stay current with technology, make greater use of
intelligence, build up talent and expertise, and expand
cooperation between agencies.
Dedicated law-enforcement professionals face daily
risks in defending citizens against criminal activity. Since
1988, nearly seven hundred officers throughout the
country have been killed in the line of duty, and over
600,000 were assaulted. We owe a debt of gratitude to
the men and women who put their lives on the line in
defense of our safety.
The United States is based on the rule of law that
ensures the security of all people. Reducing drugs and
crime is one of the nation’s most pressing social problems.
Illegal drug trafficking and substance abuse are inextricably
linked to crime, which places a tremendous social and
economic burden on our communities. Drugs divert precious
resources that support the quality of life Americans
strive to achieve. Illegal drugs create widespread problems
and produce fear, violence, and corruption. Residents are
afraid to go out of their homes, and legitimate businesses
flee urban neighborhoods. The data in Chapter II documents
the nexus between drugs and crime. Strong
law-enforcement policies contribute a great deal to
reducing drug abuse and its consequences by:
- Reducing demand—Through enforcing laws against
drug use, police strengthen social disapproval of drugs
and discourage substance abuse. Moreover, arrest—and
the resulting threat of imprisonment—offer a powerful
incentive for addicts to take treatment seriously.
- Disrupting supply—The movement of drugs from
sources of supply to our nation’s streets requires sophisticated
organizations. When law enforcement detects
and dismantles a drug ring, less heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine, club drugs (ecstasy, PMA, GHM,
etc.), and marijuana find their way to our streets.
Seizures reduce availability.
To use the power of law enforcement effectively, the
National Drug Control Strategy promotes coordination,
intelligence sharing, advanced technology, equitable sentencing
policies, and a focus on criminal targets that cause
the most damage to our nation.
Law-Enforcement Coordination
In unity there is strength. The more local, state, federal,
and tribal law-enforcement operations reinforce one
another, the more they share information and resources.
The more they “deconflict” operations, establish priorities,
and focus energies across the spectrum of criminal
activities, the more successful will be the outcome of separate
activities. The illegal drug trade is not a local but a
national problem that is, in fact, international in scope.
Drug-trafficking organizations do not confine their activities
to limited geographic boundaries. Accordingly,
federal, state, and local agencies have joined forces on
national and regional levels to achieve better results. The
El Paso Intelligence Center and the National Drug Intelligence
Center (in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) produce
strategic assessments of the drug threat and provide direct
support to state and local law enforcement.
An example of outstanding collaborative efforts among
law-enforcement agencies was the partnership between
the United States Marshals Service (USMS), United
States Customs Service, and Internal Revenue Service in
2000. Through sixty-three federal, state, and local Fugitive
Apprehension Teams, thirty-six thousand federal and
sixteen thousand state and local fugitives were arrested by
the USMS in FY 2000. Over 52 percent of such arrests
have a drug component.
Perhaps the finest example of federal law-enforcement
coordination is the Special Operations Division (SOD).
This is a joint national coordinating and support entity
comprised of federal agents, analysts, and prosecutors from
the Department of Justice, DEA, FBI, USCS, and the
IRS. SOD’s mission is to coordinate regional and national
criminal investigations against major drug trafficking organizations.
These drug rings operate across jurisdictional
boundaries on regional, national, and international levels.
SOD works closely with OCDETF, HIDTA, and the U.S.
Attorneys offices nationwide. This year, SOD coordinated
some of the nation’s top drug investigations involving federal,
state, and local agencies. Among these are:
- Operation Impunity was a two-year investigation that
tied drug trafficking in the United States to the highest
levels of the international cocaine trade. Initially, the
operation identified three individuals based in the
United States and linked to the Amado Carrillo-Fuentes
drug-trafficking organization headquartered in
Juarez, Mexico. The arrest of those three key defendants
led authorities to arrest another ninety who ultimately
helped dismantle this nationwide drug trafficking network.
In addition, U.S. authorities seized of 12,434
kilograms of cocaine, 4,800 pounds of marijuana, and
$26 million in currency and assets.
- Operation Impunity II was a multi-jurisdictional follow-on
to Operation Impunity. The investigation targeted
the cocaine and marijuana trafficking organization
comprised of remnants of the Amado CARRILLO-Fuentes
Organization (ACF) and the Gulf Cartel. In
December 2000, nationwide enforcement actions coordinated
by SOD resulted in the execution of
approximately 100 arrest warrants.
- Operation Tar Pit targeted a criminal organization based
in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico that manufactured and
imported black tar heroin from Mexico into the United
States. Initially, the organization delivered heroin to
organization members, or “cell heads,” in Los Angeles
where it was prepared for further distibution to other
cell heads in San Diego, Bakersfield, Honolulu, Maui,
Portland (OR), Denver, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh,
Phoenix, Yuma, Albuquerque, and Charleston
(WV). Operation Tar Pit culminated in June 2000
when federal, state, and local law-enforcement officials
executed a nationwide roundup of 249 criminal defendants,
along with sixty-four pounds of high-purity
black tar heroin.
- Operation Green Air dismantled a marijuana trafficking
organization that was based in Mexico and Jamaica.
The organization smuggled marijuana from Mexico
through U.S. Ports of Entry (POE) to warehouses in
Southern California. From the warehouses, the marijuana
was shipped by corrupt employees of an
overnight delivery service to distribution cells in several
East Coast cities. In April 2000, Operation Green Air
culminated with the arrest of 106 people nationwide
and the seizure of more than fifteen tons of marijuana
and $4.5 million.
- Operation Mountain Express targeted criminal organizations
that dealt with quantities exceeding a ton of
pseudoephedrine, the precursor chemical for methamphetamine.
Since January 2000, SOD coordinated a
number of multi-jurisdictional investigations that
traced these chemical shipments from importers to
rogue registrants and eventually to extraction laboratories.
Ultimately, Operation Mountain Express resulted in
189 arrests; the seizure of more than 12.5 tons of pseudoephedrine;
eighty-three pounds of methamphetamine;
$12 million in currency and assets; the closure of thirty-nine
chemical companies; and the revocation,
surrender, or denial of thirty-nine controlled substance
registrations.
The DEA, FBI, Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S.
Customs Service completed Operation Red Tide, an 18
month investigation against a multi-ethnic, transnational
MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine distribution organization
in November 2000. All told, the operation has seized
more than 4 million tablets (including a shipment of
more than 1.2 million headed for Los Angeles), more
than 40 suspects in six U.S. cities and in four European
countries were arrested including the head of the organization, Tamer Adel Ibrahim. This operation was a cooperative
effort between U.S. law-enforcement agencies and
police from the Netherlands, Mexico, Israel, Germany,
France, and Italy.
In July, after a six-year search, Mexico’s Procuraduria
General De La Republic arrested Agustin Vasquez-Mendoza—a fugitive on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list.
Working with the DEA and FBI, Mexican authorities
arrested Vasquez Mendoza in the mountains of Mexico.
Vasquez-Mendoza was wanted in connection with the
July 1994 killing of DEA Special Agent Richard Fass.
Assisting State and Local Agencies
The Department of Justice has adopted a two-pronged
approach to help state and local communities. First, DOJ
provides funding and technical assistance to law-enforcement
agencies at all levels. Second, DOJ funds initiatives
by promoting testing and treatment for offenders, thus
helping communities offer employment opportunities
and prevent drug abuse. State and local law enforcement
is also assisted through the seizure of assets associated with
criminal drug activity. In addition to DOJ funding,
numerous other federal agencies and programs support
law enforcement at the community level. In FY 2000, the
U.S. Customs Service alone shared over $71.9 million
earmarked for state and local law-enforcement missions.
The U.S. Attorney, as chief federal law-enforcement officer
in each judicial district and the Department of Justice as
a whole, works with state and local law-enforcement
agencies to develop priorities, implement strategies, and
supply leadership. DOJ assists communities and neighborhoods
through the Edward Byrne Memorial State and
Local Law Enforcement Block Grants Program. Grants
support multi-jurisdictional task forces, demand-reduction
education involving police officers, and other
activities directly related to preventing drug-related crime
and violence. The local Law Enforcement Block Grant
Program contributes funds for hiring police, improving
school safety, purchasing equipment, and setting up
multi-jurisdictional task forces.
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
(HIDTA)
HIDTAs are regions of the country with critical drug-trafficking
problems that harm other areas of the United
States. The ONDCP director—in consultation with the
Attorney General, Secretary of Treasury, heads of drug-control
agencies, and appropriate governors—designates
these locations. There are currently twenty-six HIDTAs
and five HIDTA partnerships along the Southwest Border
in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In addition
to coordinating drug-control efforts, HIDTAs assess
regional drug threats, develop strategies to address the
threats, integrate initiatives, and provide federal resources
to implement initiatives. HIDTAs strengthen America’s
drug-control efforts by forging partnerships among local,
state, and federal law-enforcement agencies. They facilitate
cooperative investigations, intelligence and resource
sharing, and joint operations against drug-trafficking
organizations. The Department of Defense gives support
to HIDTAs in the form of National Guard assistance,
intelligence analysts, and technical training.
The HIDTA program advances the National Drug Control
Strategy by providing a coordination “umbrella” for
agencies to combine anti-drug efforts through an outcome-focused
approach. The resulting synergy eliminates
unnecessary duplication of effort, maximizes resources, and
improves information sharing within and between regions.
Intelligence is coordinated at HIDTA Investigative Support
Centers, which offer technical, analytical, and strategic support
to participating agencies with access to agency
databases and supplemental personnel. Currently, 949 local,
172 state, and thirty-five federal law-enforcement agencies
and eighty-six other organizations participate in 462
HIDTA-funded initiatives in forty states, the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Community-Oriented Policing
Community-Oriented Policing is an innovative crime-fighting
strategy which recognizes that neighborhood
problems can be solved best when police and community
work together. This collaboration between civilians and
officers has successfully decreased drug-related crime. The
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
advances policing of anti-drug actions at the street level. It
has funded the addition of over 105,000 community
police officers to the beat. The COPS Office supports
three drug-related grant programs: (1) a Methamphetamine
Initiative that combats production, distribution,
and use (2) the COPS Technology Program, which runs
the Southwest Border States Anti-Drug Information System;
and (3) the Distressed Neighborhood Pilot Project in
eighteen cities that face particularly high crime rates.
More than thirty COPS grants have been awarded to
twelve thousand law enforcement agencies, cornering 87
percent of the country.
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Task Forces (OCDETF)
One of most effective way to attack sophisticated drug-trafficking
organizations and attendant criminal activity—like money laundering, corruption, violence, organized
crime, and tax evasion—is through coordinated,
inter-agency task-forces. Accordingly, the Department of
Justice calls upon the OCDETF program, with its nine
federal law-enforcement agencies, to employ a wide range
of expertise in disrupting and dismantling drug-trafficking
organizations. The collaboration between law
enforcement and U.S. Attorneys, as well as state and local
district attorneys and attorneys general, plays an integral
part in OCDETF’s fight against drug traffickers. In 1998,
OCDETF initiated 1,356 investigations with 2,447
indictments returned (more than double the number
during the previous two years combined, with a 41.6
percent increase in indictments). In 1999, 1,487
OCDETF investigations were initiated, and 8,479 convictions
were secured. Again during FY 2000, 1,400
OCDETF investigations were opened to target the drug
trafficking organizations that threaten our nation and our
neighborhoods.
Weed and Seed
Operation Weed and Seed is a strategy—rather than a
grant program—which aims to prevent and reduce violent
crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted
high-crime neighborhoods across the country. It is an
innovative and comprehensive multi-agency approach to
law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization.
Present in 250 sites across the nation under the
leadership of U.S. Attorneys, this strategy brings together
city, state, and federal officials as well as members of the
community and the private sector. The elements of the
Weed and Seed Strategy include law enforcement; community
policing; prevention, intervention, and treatment;
and neighborhood restoration. The High Point, NC
Community Against Violence Initiative and the several
initiatives of Operation Weed and Seed in Austin, TX. In
Highpoint, the initiative uses six components requiring a
close relationship between law enforcement and the community
to reduce drug trafficking in neighborhoods.
Since 1997 the number of gang and drug-related homicides
have decreased by 100 percent; criminal homicides
by 69 percent; criminal homicides committed with a gun
by 82 percent; and robberies and assaults with firearms by
48 percent. In Austin, TX the Broadmoor and Cameron
initiative resulted in the first gang injunction lawsuit ever
filed in Texas. Additionally in Operation Crackdown
twenty-six dealers were arrested and prosecuted from the
Weed and Seed area.
Anti-Money Laundering Initiatives
The success of drug-traffickers and organized crime is
dependent on the ability to launder billions of dollars
derived from illicit activities. Through money laundering,
the criminal transforms illegal proceeds into funds with a
seemingly legal source. This process can have devastating
social and economic consequences. Criminals manipulate
financial systems in the United States and abroad to promote
a wide range of illicit activities. Left unchecked,
money laundering can erode the integrity of financial institutions,
cause greater volatility in foreign exchange markets,
destabilize economies, place honest businesses at comparative
disadvantage, undermine public trust, erode democratic
institutions, and breed violence. Many agencies like the
Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the
Postal Inspection Service, federal regulators, and state and
local law enforcement agencies help protect specific sectors
of the financial system that are most vulnerable to financial
criminal activity.34
In light of the threat to national security concerns posed
by money laundering, Congress passed the Money
Laundering and Financial Crimes Act of 1998, which
calls for the development of a five-year anti-money laundering
strategy. The Departments of the Treasury and
Justice developed the first National Money Laundering
Strategy in 1999 and followed with the second NMLS in
March 2000. The Strategy contains over sixty action
items to help law enforcement and regulatory agencies in
the fight against financial crimes including the money
laundering.
Some key elements of the year 2000 NMLS include:
- The designation of High Intensity Financial Crime
Areas (HIFCAs) that target financial crimes
- The development of legislation that would provide
the Secretary of the Treasury with new discretionary
authorities to crack down on foreign jurisdictions,
institutions or classes of transactions that pose a serious
money laundering threat
- The implementation of rules applying to suspicious
activity reporting (SARs) requirements beyond depository
institutions
- The continued identification of countries that pose
serious threats due to their lack of action against
money laundering.
In response to these goals, the National Money Laundering
Strategy for 2000 announced the designation of New
York/Northern New Jersey, the Los Angeles Metropolitan
Area, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Southwest Border
Area,* as High Intensity Financial Crime Areas (HIFCAs).
HIFCAs focus on underlying criminal activities associated
with money laundering and apply resources to counteract
such crime. Overseen by a joint DOJ/Treasury committee
of enforcement personnel, additional applications for
HIFCAs are anticipated in 2001 as the program grows.
* The Southwest Border functional HIFCA specifically focues on bulk cash movements.
Because money laundering is not confined to designated
HIFCA areas, Treasury Secretary Lawrence
Summers and Attorney General Janet Reno issued a joint
memorandum to U.S. Attorneys and federal law-enforcement
field offices throughout the country, communicating
the importance of money laundering
enforcement and emphasizing steps to be taken. Key to
this directive was the establishment of task forces to analyze
information from financial institutions’ Suspicious
Activity Reports (SARs). The 2000 NMLS was augmented
through the Financial Crime-Free Communities
Grant Program. The C-FIC Program will fund state and
local law-enforcement agencies to detect, prevent, and
suppress money laundering and related financial crimes.
Such grants are designed to help communities marshal
information and expertise to build innovative approaches
to money laundering control and enforcement. On
October 26, 2000, Secretary Summers announced the
first C-FIC grants, totaling $2.35 million, that were
awarded to nine state and local law-enforcement agencies.
Banks are required to report financial activity they suspect
involves funds derived from criminal activity.35 This
information is placed in a secure database co-owned by
the primary bank and credit union regulators and administered
by the Treasury Department. High priority has
been given to problems raised by criminal abuse of financial
service providers known collectively as “money
services businesses” (MSBs). Measures to extend mandatory
suspicious reporting requirements to other financial
service providers, including money service businesses like
money-wire transmitters, “casas de cambio,” and sellers of
money orders and travelers’ checks continue to move forward.
In August 1999, FinCEN issued regulations that
will require the registration of all MSBs. MSBs must register
with the Treasury Department by December 2001
and submit SARs beginning in January 2002. FinCEN
launched a national education campaign targeting
affected businesses. Eventually, reporting suspicious transactions
will be required of casinos, brokers, insurance
companies, travel agencies, and securities dealers.
DOJ’s Special Operations Division (SOD) formed a
Money Laundering Section comprised of senior agents
and analysts from Customs, DEA, FBI, and IRS and supported
by attorneys from the Justice Department’s
Criminal Division. This section will coordinate drug-related
money laundering and financial investigations
conducted by federal, state, and local law enforcement in
coordination with United States Attorneys’ offices. The
section is designed to target and investigate foreign and
domestic drug-trafficking organizations and their money
laundering elements.
The U.S. Customs Service’s Money Laundering Coordination
Center (MLCC) is another example of interagency
collaboration in money laundering. The MLCC, which is
housed and supported by FinCEN, was created in 1997.
With agents and analysts from USCS, IRS, OFAC, and
USPS, the MLCC serves as a repository for all intelligence
information gathered through undercover money laundering
investigations and functions as a coordination center for
domestic and international undercover money laundering
operations. Plans are underway to expand MLCC’s partnership
with other federal agencies in the coming year. In
addition, the Treasury Department created the National
Center for State and Local Enforcement Training, located at
the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in
Glynco, GA, to share federal experience, resources, and
expertise in fighting money laundering.
Enhancing Asset Forfeiture
The Departments of Justice and Treasury use asset
forfeitures to attack the economic infrastructure of drug-trafficking
organizations and money laundering
enterprises. Both strategically integrate this tool into an
overall enforcement plan to strike traffickers at the source
of power. Asset forfeiture is part of the department’s
Southwest Border Initiative. “Operation Kids” in Puerto
Rico resulted in defendants being found liable for the
forfeiture of $4.1 million in drug-related assets.
All federal law-enforcement agencies incorporate
seizure and forfeiture of assets belonging to narcotics
organizations as an integral part of their attack on narcotics
organizations. The goal is to deny a criminal
organization the wherewithal to continue operations and
thus ensure its dismemberment. Federal, state, local, and
foreign law-enforcement agencies follow the “money trail”
wherever it may lead. From 1989 through December
2000, the Department of Justice-administered international
asset sharing program has shared $168,439,888
with foreign governments who cooperated and assisted in
investigations. In a joint investigation of the largest and
longest-operating Thai marijuana smuggling group in
Oregon, IRS-CI, USCS, DEA, and Swiss authorities were
able to seize $11.7 million from a single drug trafficker. In
FY 1999, IRS-CI alone confiscated in excess of $80 million
and, through the Treasury Asset Forfeiture Fund,
shared $19.5 million with foreign, federal, state, and local
agencies. The Equitable Sharing Program encourages law-enforcement
cooperation by dividing forfeiture proceeds
among agencies that participated in the investigation.
Preventing Chemical Diversion
Chemicals are crucial for manufacturing most illicit
drugs. In response to the rise in methamphetamine lab
seizures, DOJ approved a plan targeting “rogue” chemical
companies that knowingly supply precursors to
methamphetamine producers. The plan combines law-enforcement
action, regulatory reform, and outreach to
the legitimate chemical industry through conferences
sponsored by the Attorney General. Between 1997 and
1999, tightened DEA and U.S. Customs regulatory and
import controls have prevented the diversion of 192 million
tablets of ephedrine—enough to make nearly
17,000 pounds of pure methamphetamine (at a 60 percent
conversion rate). Additionally, DEA cooperation
with major chemical producing countries between 1998
and October 2000 blocked 343 metric tons of ephedrine
and pseudoephedrine imports capable of producing over
200 metric tons of methamphetaime.
Targeting some of the nation’s largest chemical trafficking
organizations, U.S. Customs and DEA executed
Operation Mountain Express in August 2000. This initiative
resulted in 189 arrests in eight U.S. cities and the
seizure of $8 million and twelve and a half metric tons of
pseudoephedrine tablets, as well as eighty-three pounds of
methamphetamine along with processing labs and chemical
solvents. As part of this plan, DEA sponsored several
national meetings in 2000 for prosecutors; senior law-enforcement
management; and federal, state, and local
investigators. These gatherings were designed to improve
investigation and prosecution of chemical traffickers.
Drugs and Crime on America’s Public
Lands
Of 1.9 billion acres that constitute the total land within
the United States, about 716 million acres (approximately
38 percent) are under the jurisdiction of federal land-management
agencies. One of the most worrisome trends
in connection with these public lands is the rise of drug-related
crime and violence. The Department of the
Interior (DOI) and the Department of Agriculture’s Forest
Service (USDA, FS), National Drug Intelligence
Center, and state and local agencies all warn of sharp
increases in drug cultivation, production, and trafficking
on America’s public and tribal lands.36
Stepped-up law enforcement and eradication in urban
and rural areas have forced traffickers into the seclusion of
more remote, thinly patrolled parks and forests. Vast
areas of public land constitute some of the country’s most
active drug trafficking and production regions, including
half of the 2000-mile Southwest border and nearly eight
hundred miles of the U.S.-Canadian border. At the Arizona-Mexico border, the Department of the Interior has
seen a 700 percent increase in smuggling over the last
three years. Organized drug trading on America’s public
lands threatens the safety of visitors, residents, and
employees.
From the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, marijuana plots
discovered on public lands rarely exceeded several hundred
to a few thousand plants. However, the extent and
size of many gardens has grown significantly since then.
In 1997 land management authorities discovered a seventy
thousand-plant garden, which had been managed,
operated, and protected by criminals linked to a major
drug organization based in Mexico. Since this seizure,
marijuana cultivation has risen steadily on public lands.
In Arizona, authorities seized twenty thousand marijuana
plants in one garden on public land. In 1999, land management
agencies destroyed 900,320 marijuana plants.
Preliminary reports show that 630,000 marijuana plants
have already been eradicated from National Forest System
(NFS) lands in the first nine months of 2000.
Methamphetamine producers also have settled on public
land, which provides seclusion from law enforcement
as well as convenient dumpsites for chemical by-products.
In 1998 and 1999, law enforcement agencies reported
more than five hundred clandestine labs found on public
lands. Already in 2000, USDA’s Forest Service reported
three hundred laboratories or dumpsites located on or
near the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri.
Federal public lands in the proximity of our borders
with Mexico and Canada are being used as corridors for
smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. DOI and Forest
Service personnel seize tons of marijuana and other drugs
each year. Ironically, pressure by other agencies patrolling
private holdings along the Southwest border moves smuggling
activities on to federal land. Illegal cross-border
traffic inexorably follows the path of least resistance and
highest pay-off. Where interdiction is least likely to occur,
a high volume of contraband will be concentrated.
Land management agencies have witnessed a sharp
increase in crime and violence associated with the marijuana
and methamphetamine trade. One of the more
glaring incidents occurred in the summer of 2000 when a
father and son, while hiking through the El Dorado
National Forest in California, were shot and seriously
injured by an armed trafficker who was protecting his
marijuana plot. Reports have also been made of intimidation
by drug dealer of park visitors and residents. In the
Coronado National Memorial, for instance, National
Park Service employees and their families are under nearly
constant surveillance by scouts working for marijuana
drug trafficking organizations who are protecting drug-related
activities. On numerous occasions, smugglers have
confronted visitors and federal employees with threats,
shootings, beatings, robberies, and rapes.
The danger to the environment and wildlife is another
aspect of this problem. Marijuana cultivators have
poached wildlife and poisoned considerable public
acreage with pesticides and herbicides. Methamphetamine
producers are dumping large quantities of chemicals
that negatively affect the soil, watersheds, and vegetation.
Land management authorities point out the immediate
threat of forest fires that could be ignited by precursor
chemicals or toxic fumes that also threaten emergency
personnel. In the Southwest, smugglers have destroyed
fences and built roads that cross the border into our parks
and public lands. In doing so, they have destroyed our
natural resources and left tons of trash in their wake.
Policing crime on 525 million acres of Department of
Interior lands is the job of 4,650 federal law enforcement
officers37 from the Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Bureau
of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. USDA’s Forest Service has
586 law-enforcement personnel to manage 191 million
acres. In the last year, one of the top priorities of land
management law-enforcement agencies has been to raise
public and Congressional awareness of the emerging drug
trade on America’s lands, associated violence, and the
resources needed to contain it.
Intelligence Sharing
Intelligence gleaned from the collection of information
must be shared in order to reduce cultivation, production,
trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs. Cooperation
in the use of strategic and operational intelligence is critical
for combating the drug problem. Tactical intelligence
is time-sensitive, and it contributes to arrests and drug
seizures. Agencies must be able to share relevant data
across jurisdictional boundaries without compromising
intelligence or the operations related to it. The U.S.
Marshal Service has pursued several information-sharing
initiatives with a view toward interagency cooperation.
This past year, the USMS became the first federal law-enforcement
agency to share all its automated criminal
intelligence with other agencies on the Anti-Drug
Network (ADNET).
Under the authority of the Border Coordination Initiative
(BCI), personnel from the U.S. Customs Service,
Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Border
Patrol have joined Intelligence Collection Analysis Teams
along the Southwest border to gather and disseminate tactical
intelligence. DOJ’s Regional Information Sharing
System is a network of centers that process intelligence on
drug trafficking, violent crime, gang activity, and organized
crime. In FY 1999, this network contributed to the
arrest of 4,160 individuals and the seizure of drugs valued
at $104 million. The HIDTA program has established
Information Support Centers in designated areas specifically
to create a communication infrastructure that can
facilitate information-sharing between federal, state, and
local law-enforcement agencies. Additional developments
in counterdrug intelligence sharing are discussed in
Section Five of this chapter.
ONDCP’s Counterdrug Technology
Assessment Center
Technology can play a dramatic role in combating
drug-related crime. Law-enforcement agencies increase
their effectiveness by integrating technology and coordinating
operations. ONDCP’s Counterdrug Technology
Assessment Center (CTAC) was established by the
Counter-Narcotics Technology Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-510). CTAC is the federal government’s drug-control
technology research and development organization. It
coordinates the activities of twenty federal agencies. It
identifies short, medium, and long-term scientific and
technological needs of drug-enforcement agencies—including surveillance; tracking; electronic support measures;
communications; data fusion; and chemical,
biological, and radiological detection. It also works with
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to apply
technology and expand the effectiveness or availability of
drug-treatment research.
Technological development supports law-enforcement
by improving capabilities for drug detection, communication,
and surveillance. An array of operational tests and
activities are conducted to evaluate off-the-shelf and
emerging technology prototypes for use in the field. In
1998, Congress authorized a Technology Transfer Program
(TTP) for CTAC to provide advanced equipment
developed by federal agencies to state and local law-enforcement.
From FY 1998 through FY 2000, 1,808
pieces of equipment were delivered to 1,325 state and
local law-enforcement agencies in all fifty states under the
TTP. The program was successful in rapidly delivering
technologies and training to approximately 9 percent of
the 16,600 police departments and sheriffs’ offices in the
country over this three-year period.
For the past five years, brain-imaging technology development
projects that exploit advances in Positron
Emission Tomography (PET), functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and Magnetic Resonance
Spectrometry for drug-abuse research have been developed
with institutions like NIDA’s Intramural Research
Program, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Emory University, University of
Pennsylvania, University of California at Los Angeles, and
Harvard University/McLean Hospital. Each of these institutions
have world-class medical research teams that have
agreed to conduct research on drug abuse and addiction
with the new equipment. They will be training other
professionals specializing in drug-abuse research to
increase knowledge in this field.
The companion volume to this annual report—Counterdrug
Research and Development Blueprint Update—reviews CTAC’s research agenda in support of efforts to
reduce the availability and abuse of drugs. It also assesses
the effectiveness of federal technology programs aimed at
improving drug-detection capabilities used in interdiction
and at ports-of-entry.
Law Enforcement’s Ability to Keep
Pace with Trafficker Technology
Technology is reshaping the nature of crime, particularly
in U.S. and international drug trade. Federal
law-enforcement agencies report that traffickers are turning
increasingly to the Internet and other forms of
wireless technology to protect, expand, and enhance
criminal activity.
Internet technology provides drug traffickers with
immediate and anonymous communication which,
coupled with encryption, makes it difficult for law
enforcement to penetrate criminal organizations. Consequently,
law-enforcement agencies are being drawn into
new areas of digital evidence, analysis, and investigations,
which are placing ever-increasing demands on their
attempt to keep pace with criminal technology.
Law-enforcement agencies are trying to conduct drug
investigations in a technological environment that is constantly
changing. They are developing and sharing advanced
technology as well as cooperating in ways that will help
them respond to digital technology being used by drug traffickers.
Agents, officers, and analysts must be trained and
retrained in digital and Internet investigations along with
computer forensics. Law-enforcement entities like the FBI,
Customs, DEA and Special Operations Division have initiated
training programs to help their investigators and
analysts penetrate criminal communications.
Law-enforcement officers are also cooperating in new
ways to leverage their combined resources and expertise.
The FBI, for instance, has invited the DEA to participate
in research and development of communications intercept
technology, an effort that has directly contributed to
federal drug investigations.
Law-enforcement agencies anticipate an even greater technological
leap in the global drug trade. Just as telephone
communication has been the cornerstone of drug conspiracy
investigations, the DEA expects that the Internet, digital
evidence, and dual-use technology will become central to
virtually all complex drug investigations.
Targeting Gangs and Violence
The Department of Justice, its Criminal Division, the
USCS, DEA, FBI, USMS, and U.S. Attorneys, along with
their state and local counterparts, are focusing on identifying,
disrupting, and dismantling criminal gangs. The most
effective tools available include federal racketeering statutes,
federal, and state narcotics and weapons laws, and collaborative
multi-agency task forces. DOJ’s Anti-Violent Crime
Initiative, which targets gangs and violent crime, has made
substantial impact on communities across the country.
The DEA and FBI lead federal efforts against violent
street gangs that are becoming increasingly involved in drug
trafficking. The FBI’s National Gang Strategy is a framework
for combating such violence in America. Supporting
this strategy is the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Forces (SSTF),
which confront violent crime and lend assistance to state,
county, and local law enforcement. The task forces, comprised
of FBI agents, state and local officers, and other
federal personnel, concentrate long-term investigations on
the most violent crimes and the apprehension fugitives.
Since the program’s introduction in 1992, SSTFs have been
responsible for the arrest of 185,000 violent fugitives, a great
many of whom were linked to illicit drug trafficking.
In 1995, DEA launched the Mobile Enforcement Team
(MET) program to assist state and local police in combating
the problem of drug-related crime and gang violence.
As of September 30, 2000, there were 272 DEA agents
assigned to METs, established in all but one domestic
field office. Since the program’s inception, a total of 287
METs have deployed across the country which resulted in
11,283 arrests. In fiscal year 2000, the DEA offered community
mobilization and drug-demand reduction
training to cities that requested it.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF)
targets armed drug traffickers through the Armed Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program, International Trafficking
in Firearms, the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction
Initiative (YCGII), and the Integrated Violence Reduction
Strategy (IVRS). These programs are aimed at
reducing crime and violence, much of it drug-related. The
ATF also conducts Gang Resistance Education and Training
(G.R.E.A.T.) in schools. Specially trained agents and
officers deliver anti-violence and anti-gang information to
students. In Fiscal Year 1999, 4,400 law-enforcement personnel
nationwide taught approximately 334,443
children. Since 1992, 2.5 million children received
G.R.E.A.T. instruction.
DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) provides state
and local agencies with resources to combat gangs and
drugs. In 1994, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP) launched its Comprehensive
Response to America’s Youth Gang Problem. This initiative
included: 1) the development of the National Youth
Gang Center to collect and disseminate information to
local communities; 2) the implementation of a comprehensive
response to youth gang violence; 3) an evaluation
of the model programs implemented; 4) training and
technical assistance to local communities dealing with
youth gang problems; and 5) targeted acquisition and dissemination
of youth gang resources. The program,
implemented with technical assistance and training support
from the National Youth Gang Center, directly
involves police (gang unit and patrol), probation (juvenile
and adult), schools, community-based youth serving
agencies, street outreach entities, grassroots (including
faith-based organizations), community members, youth,
prosecutors, judges, and others.
In 1998, OJJDP launched its Rural Gang Initiative
(RGI) to provide rural communities experiencing gang
problems with the opportunity to implement this unique
approach to the gang problem. In 2000, OJJDP—in
partnership with the Department of Health and Human
Services, Department of Education, and the Department
of the Treasury—launched a major new initiative to
expand this initiative.
Equitable Sentencing Policies
The Administration supports revision of the 1986 federal
law that mandates a minimum five-year prison
sentence for anyone possessing either five hundred grams
of powder cocaine or a mere five grams of crack cocaine.
This law, which punishes crack-cocaine involvement one
hundred times more severely than powder-cocaine crimes,
is problematic for two reasons. First, since crack is more
prevalent in black, inner-city neighborhoods, the law has
fostered a perception of racial injustice within our criminal
justice system. In fact, 90 percent of people convicted
on crack-cocaine charges are African American. Second,
harsher penalties for crack possession compared to powder
have resulted in long incarceration for low-level crack
dealers instead of increased apprehension of middle and
large-scale cocaine traffickers.
The Administration recommends that federal sentencing
treat crack as ten times worse than powder, not one
hundred times worse. Specifically, the amount of powder
cocaine required to trigger a five-year mandatory sentence
would be reduced from five hundred to two hundred and
fifty grams while the amount of crack cocaine required to
trigger the same sentence would increase from five grams
to twenty-five grams. This difference would reflect—without gross exaggeration—the greater addictive potential
of crack (which is smoked) compared to powder
(when snorted), the greater violence associated with the
trafficking of crack cocaine, and the importance of targeting
mid and higher-level traffickers as opposed to
smaller-scale dealers. The Administration also recommends
that mandatory minimums be abolished for simple
possession of crack. Among all controlled substances,
crack is the only one with a federal mandatory minimum
sentence for a first offense of simple possession.
Community support is critical to the success of law
enforcement. When people lose confidence in the fairness
and logic of the law—as has been the case with the 1986
statute—law-enforcement suffers. By revising the
inequitable sentencing structure for powder versus crack
cocaine, the Administration intends to restore overall
respect for the law and foster a more effective division of
responsibility between law-enforcement authorities.
State Drug Laws
State laws are an important vehicle for translating the
concepts in the National Drug Control Strategy into
action. The Strategy’s policies are embodied within a tangible
legislative framework with which state policymakers
shape policies and laws. With this goal in mind, Congress
in 1988 mandated the creation of a bipartisan commission
to develop state drug laws. The resulting President’s
Commission on Model State Drug Laws drafted forty-four
drug and alcohol laws and policies covering
enforcement, treatment, education, prevention, intervention,
employment, housing, and community issues.
Since 1996, the Commission’s non-profit successor—the
National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws—has been
conducting state model law workshops. These workshops
brought together hundreds of diverse participants on the
state level who recommended more than a hundred pieces
of drug and alcohol legislation, programming, funding, and
coordination initiatives. With these recommendations, state
and local leaders have adopted new statutes, formed more
effective multi-disciplinary partnerships, and streamlined
legislative and programmatic applications.
