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Drug
EnforcementAdministrationInformation Sharing
Prepared for:
The National
Commission
on
Terrorist Attacks upon
the
United States
October 2003
 
Information
Sharing by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
During the
past
30 years, the DEA has been successful in identifying, disrupting,
and
dismantling many drug
trafficking
organizations whose
enterprises
not only operated
on
a national level,
affecting
many state and local jurisdictions, but
also
on an
international
level, transcending national borders. These
successes
were
not
accomplished unilaterally. For three decades DEA has built
close,
effective working
relationships
with federal,
state,
and local police and intelligence
agencies,
as well as
with
its foreign law enforcement partners. This multi-agency, multinational cooperation
led
DEA to
develop effective protocols
and
applications
for the
sharing
of
information
derived
from
many sources. Since its creation, DEA has devoted significant resources
and
initiated numerous programs
to
ensure that
its
information
is
effectively shared
acrosstheentire spectrumof its law
enforcement
andIntelligence Community(1C)
partners.Since DEA was established, many other government agencies have joined in the
counterdrug
effort
and have developed new intelligence sharing mechanisms. Several
extensive
cooperative programs have been developed and implemented to support drug
investigations
among federal, state,andlocallawenforcement,theUnited States
(U.S.)
military,
and the
1C.
One such program is the State and Local Task
Force
program whichwas established by DEA virtually at the organization's inception, and today DEA has, by
far,
the
most extensive task
force
program
in
federal
law
enforcement.
A
task
force
is
composedofrepresentatives
from
thefederal, state,andlocallawenforcement agencies,as well as the Department of Defense. In all of the DEA-led
state/local task
forces, DEAprovides
access
to its databases for those
officers
and analysts
assigned.
DEA
also
participatesinmanyad hoctask forcesled byother agencies aroundtheworldandprovides access to DEA information to these participants. Through the Organized Crime
Drug
Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
(HIDTA)
programs, DEA brings not only its information resources, but its investigative
and
intelligence expertise to a joint cooperative and collaborative
effort
at the local and
regional
levels.
It is
DEA's policy
and
practice
to
share information
in a
task forcesetting.
Currently,DEA
participates
in
157
state
and
local task forces,
51
HIDTA groups,
and
over 4,500 OCDETF open investigations. Furthermore, DEA is represented in 58countries worldwide
and is an
active participant
in
international collaborative
efforts,
such
as the International Drug Enforcement Conference(IDEC),the Asian Drug
Enforcement
Conference (ADEC),
the
Heads
of
National Drug
Law
Enforcement
Agencies
(HONLEA), the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative
(SECI)
RegionalCenter, and International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). DEA information
is
shared through
all of
these venues.More recently, DEA developed, and now leads, the Special Operations Division(SOD), located at DEA, that utilizes sophisticated technology to coordinate theinvestigative and intelligence resources of the DEA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal
 
Revenue
Service's
(IRS) Criminal Investigation Division. Through
participation
at
SOD,
DBA
is able to share its investigative and intelligence information in a concentrated andcentralized environment conducive to open information sharing.
InformationSharing through DEA's Foreign Program
DEA's
Foreign Program assists host national
law
enforcement
agencies
in
their
enforcement
efforts
through information sharing. Investigative information gathered byDEA's foreign
offices,
as well as any foreign intelligence that it collaterally develops, isshared with these partner foreign
law
enforcement agencies
to the
extent
possible,
as
wellas with the U.S. country team members. Because
DBA
often
has extensive and very
productive
sources in these foreign countries, it frequently collects information that is notrelated
to drugs.
That information
is
also
passed
immediately
to the
appropriateagencies
for
their use and
further
development, with
DBA
assistance if necessary.DBAisrecognized worldwide as an effective law enforcement partner, and a DBA
presence
often
facilitates
and encourages information sharing between our foreign counterparts and otherU.S. agencies.
An
example
of the
overseas cooperation
is
that many U.S. Embassies
in
Latin
America have established multi-agency, multi-mission Tactical Analysis Teams(TATs) that focus, in part, on drug activities. TATs are U.S.
assets
deployed to support
United
States Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM) requirements, but they support
U.S.
drug law enforcement
efforts,
in part, by correlating national foreign intelligence
information
with drug law enforcement information. The Information Analysis Center
(IAC)
inMexico Cityissimilarto aTAT. TATs generally have
access
to allDBA
information
for analytical and targeting purposes. Through the IAC, law enforcement
information
is
fused
with other U.S. information and passed to Mexican authorities forappropriate
law
enforcement action.
Intelligence
Community Sharing
In
order to promote the overall strategy and goals of the United States in
international
drug control, DEA routinely shares extensive amounts of drug-related
information
with the
1C
through its worldwide drug investigations, programs, andoperations. In the course of
performing
their duties, DEA personnel may obtaincollateral information of significant value to the
1C
and those agencies charged with the
formulation
of U.S. foreign policy. DEA and the
1C
agree that, because of the criticaland
time-sensitive
nature
of
much
of
this information,
its
value
is
enhanced
by
sharing
at
the
field level. At the same time, in order to ensure that other national intelligenceconsumers also benefit, this information is disseminated at the headquarters level as well.
Therefore,
informationin thefollowing categoriesisshared immediately withtheappropriate agencies in country and, in turn, reported to DEA Headquarters for
dissemination
to
other consumers: threats
to
U.S. citizens
overseas,
including U.S.
military
and government personnel; international terrorist and insurgent activities;
information
relating to nuclear/chemical/biological weapons; and the illicit transfer of
military
weapons. DEA's collection also sometimes resultsin theacquisitionof
information
related to foreign political, economic, and military issues. This information isshared with the appropriate U.S. agencies.
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