The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program has helped arrest fentanyl traffickers, seize hundreds of tons of narcotics, and confiscate billions in dirty money
Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), co-Chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Chris Coons (D-DE) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi questioning the Department of Justice’s plan to end the successful Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program.
“As the Department’s website notes, OCDETF ‘is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational-organized crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation.’ OCDETF oversees coordination of thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to implement a national strategy to dismantle transnational drug cartels, the financial networks that support them, and the flow of drugs from these cartels into the United States,” wrote the senators.
The OCDETF program is the largest anti-crime task force in the country. In just the past two months, OCDETF program resources have been used to secure prison sentences for two individuals operating a clandestine fentanyl lab in South Carolina and to take down three prolific Chinese money launderers who pleaded guilty to laundering tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Many OCDETF investigations target the cartels’ financial networks, an often-overlooked component of the U.S. strategy to combat drug-trafficking organizations. In Fiscal Year 2023, OCDETF investigations resulted in forfeitures and seizures totaling more than $423 million.
Reporting from Bloomberg in May revealed that the Trump Administration plans to eliminate the OCDETF program, including its support for specialized investigators and prosecutors, in a move that would kneecap America’s ability to dismantle cartels trafficking illicit fentanyl.
“We seek to fully understand the Department’s plans to cease OCDETF operations. We also seek to ensure that the federal government continues to have a coordinated strategy for working with state and local stakeholders to investigate and hold accountable transnational criminal organizations operating in, or financing the operations of organizations that operate in, the United States,” added the senators.
The senators requested answers to the following questions by June 13, 2025:
- How many cases has OCDETF led, or supported with funds, intelligence, or other resources, that disrupted fentanyl traffickers’ production, distribution, financing, or money laundering networks?
- Does the Department intend to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations? If so, please specify how.
- If the Department intends to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations:
- Why is the Department choosing to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations?
- How will the Department ensure that ongoing OCDETF investigations and prosecutions continue uninterrupted?
- According to GAO, “OCDETF cases must have a financial component” to facilitate the targeting of financial networks underpinning drug trafficking organizations. How will the Department ensure that OCDETF-enabled inter-agency coordination on investigations into the financial networks of fentanyl traffickers and transnational criminal organizations continues uninterrupted?
- How will the Department ensure that federal, state, and local law enforcement relying on OCDETF’s Fusion Center intelligence products are not hampered by a cessation or reduction of OCDETF operations?
- Does the Department intend to designate another entity to coordinate investigations and prosecutions of transnational criminal organizations, unrelated to low-level offenders? If so, which entity?
Whitehouse has led bipartisan efforts in the Senate to crack down on drug trafficking and dirty money, while expanding addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery services. As Chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Whitehouse held hearings to examine: the role of the federal government in attacking the financial networks of cartels; corruption associated with the illicit drug trade; the techniques that drug cartels use to procure and finance precursor chemicals that are used to manufacture illicit synthetic drugs; how drug cartels have modernized, and how Chinese money laundering networks help fentanyl traffickers.
The text of the letter is below and a PDF is available here.
June 2, 2025
The Honorable Pam Bondi
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Attorney General Bondi:
We write to request information on the Department of Justice’s plans to terminate its Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program. On May 5, 2025, Bloomberg reported that DOJ has begun the process of “closing down” OCDETF and “zeroing” out its budget in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
As the Department’s website notes, OCDETF “is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational-organized crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation.” OCDETF oversees coordination of thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to implement a national strategy to dismantle transnational drug cartels, the financial networks that support them, and the flow of drugs from these cartels into the United States. By leveraging resources from its participating and partner agencies, OCDETF can pursue investigations into the highest-level criminal actors behind these drug crime networks.
OCDETF’s intelligence products and insights enhance the capacity of federal, state, and local law enforcement. In FY 2023, OCDETF Fusion Center analysts disseminated 4,141 intelligence products to 36,693 law enforcement personnel across the country. These resources buoy state and local agencies that may otherwise lack the expertise or funds to launch longer, more complex investigations.
According to DEA, “since OCDETF’s inception tens of thousands of arrests have been made and hundreds of tons of narcotics and billions in currency, real property, and conveyances have all been seized.” And as the Department of Justice noted upon the 40th anniversary of President Reagan’s establishment of OCDETF, “[s]ome of the department’s most notable successes against drug cartels have resulted from OCDETF coordinated investigations and prosecutions.” These successes include “taking down the powerful Colombian cartels of the 1980s, the notorious and violent Mexican cartels . . . in the 1990s; and the methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and opioid threats from all over the world in the last two decades.”
OCDETF investigations continue to deliver. This month, DOJ announced that “three members of a prolific Chinese money laundering organizations plead[ed] guilty to laundering tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds.” In April, DEA reported that two individuals operating a clandestine fentanyl lab in South Carolina “were each sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl.” OCDETF resources were used for both cases.
Many OCDETF-supported investigations that result in financial forfeitures or seizures channel money into government funds, which can be used to pay for the expenses associated with forfeiture operations, as well as certain investigative costs. In FY 2023, closed OCDETF investigations resulted in forfeitures and seizures totaling $423.1 million. These benefits are in addition to money judgments resulting from ODCETF investigations, which ranged between $125 million to over $750 million from FY 2019 to FY 2023.
We seek to fully understand the Department’s plans to cease OCDETF operations. We also seek to ensure that the federal government continues to have a coordinated strategy for working with state and local stakeholders to investigate and hold accountable transnational criminal organizations operating in, or financing the operations of organizations that operate in, the United States. Thus, we request that you provide answers to the following questions.
- How many cases has OCDETF led, or supported with funds, intelligence, or other resources, that disrupted fentanyl traffickers’ production, distribution, financing, or money laundering networks?
- Does the Department intend to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations? If so, please specify how.
- If the Department intends to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations:
- Why is the Department choosing to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations?
- How will the Department ensure that ongoing OCDETF investigations and prosecutions continue uninterrupted?
- According to GAO, “OCDETF cases must have a financial component” to facilitate the targeting of financial networks underpinning drug trafficking organizations. How will the Department ensure that OCDETF-enabled inter-agency coordination on investigations into the financial networks of fentanyl traffickers and transnational criminal organizations continues uninterrupted?
- How will the Department ensure that federal, state, and local law enforcement relying on OCDETF’s Fusion Center intelligence products are not hampered by a cessation or reduction of OCDETF operations?
- Does the Department intend to designate another entity to coordinate investigations and prosecutions of transnational criminal organizations, unrelated to low-level offenders? If so, which entity?
Please provide your response to our questions no later than June 13, 2025.
