The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), within the Justice Department, is the U.S. government's "lead agency" for the enforcement of drug laws. Its 77 offices in 55 countries gather drug-enforcement intelligence, take part in host-country drug-related law enforcement operations, and train host-country law enforcement personnel.¹

The DEA divides its international activities among five roles, or "missions":²

1. Bilateral Investigative Activities: carrying out investigations of drug traffickers together with host-country Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs);
2. Coordinating Intelligence Gathering: with the aid of the various DEA intelligence programs, carrying out joint intelligence operations with host-country LEAs;
3. Engaging in Foreign Liaison;
4. Training Programs: training host-nation law-enforcement and judicial agencies; and
5. Drug Law Enforcement Institutions: assisting the institutional development of foreign drug law-enforcement agencies.

DEA programs in Latin America include the following:³

• Foreign Cooperative Investigations Program (FCIP): This program develops drug control strategies with foreign governments. Strategies include investigations of international trafficking organizations and tracking of drug money laundering.
  • Foreign Special Enforcement Operations/ Programs (SEO/P) such as OPBAT and the Northern Border Response Force (NBRF) are included in the FCIP.
• Intelligence Programs
  • Financial Intelligence Program
    • Investigates and analyzes drug-related financial activity.
  • Operational Intelligence Program
    • Gathers and examines the information necessary to carry out drug investigations.
  • Strategic Intelligence Program
    • Analyzes data concerning drug trafficking patterns, availability of drugs, and consumption patterns.
  • The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), which coordinates the gathering and sharing of intelligence between agencies and countries.

Where international organized crime groups are involved, the Justice Department's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sometimes participates in counterdrug efforts together with the DEA. In some DEA country offices (Mexico, for example), FBI agents participate in joint law enforcement operations and support DEA training activities.

Examples of DEA operations in Latin America and the Caribbean⁴

• In Argentina, the Northern Border Task Force, a twenty-member mix of provincial police and Gendarmería (a national security force that shifted from Defense Ministry to Interior Ministry control in 1996, though it maintains a "semi-militarized structure"), receives support from DEA's Buenos Aires country office. Its major mission is to investigate trafficking groups from Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay that operate along the northern Argentine border.
• In the Caribbean, DEA's "Caribbean Corridor Strategy" aims to discourage the flow of drugs through the Caribbean nations.
• In Bolivia, DEA seeks to increase contact between the Special Force for the Fight against Narcotrafficking (FELCN), a police unit, and its counterparts in Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. DEA has also opened offices along the border between Bolivia and Brazil, at Puerto Suárez, and near the Argentine border at Yucuiba. DEA funding is also helping to upgrade FELCN headquarters and to train the unit's members.
• The intelligence program in Brazil is a bilateral effort between the Brazilian Federal Police and DEA. The program focuses on combating shipment of Colombian, Bolivian, Peruvian, and Venezuelan cocaine and chemicals across Brazilian borders.
• Bilateral jungle operations in Colombia are aimed at developing operational standards and intelligence bases in the jungle. DEA helped establish the Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU), a "semi-vetted" intelligence force team within the Colombian National Police (CNP).
• In Guatemala, many of the drug seizures made by law enforcement officials, according to the State Department's March 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), "resulted from information obtained from confidential sources developed by the Guatemala Country Office."
• In Haiti, the DEA office works with the Haitian National Police, U.S. air carrier security, and airport security officials to seize drugs that are being smuggled by air.
• In Jamaica, "Operation Prop Lock" continues counternarcotics cooperation between the DEA and the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF). This effort attempts to seize U.S.-registered trafficking aircraft.
• In Mexico, the office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Health (FEADS) works with DEA on investigations.
• In Panama, DEA and Panamanian authorities have an Operational Intelligence Program that tracks organizations suspected of transporting narcotics from Colombia to the United States.
• DEA provides aerial survey teams to look for suspicious activity along rivers in Paraguay. It also provides training and drug-related intelligence.
• DEA seeks increased counternarcotics cooperation with the Suriname police force.
• A new DEA office in Trinidad and Tobago will open in early 1998.

Other sites

• Drug Enforcement Administration

Sources:

¹ U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998, (Washington: Department of State: February 1999): <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/other98.html>.

United States, General Accounting Office, U.S. Counternarcotics Efforts in Colombia Face Continuing Challenges, document number GAO/NSIAD-98-60, Washington, February, 1998: 8-9, 33-4 <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns98060.txt&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao>, Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns98060.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao>.

United States, General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Long-Standing Problems Hinder U.S. International Efforts, document number GAO/NSIAD-97-75, Washington, February, 1997: 13 <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns97075.txt&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao>, Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns97075.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao>.

² United States, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1997, Washington, March 1998, March 2, 1998 <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1997_narc_report/index.html>.

³ United States, Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy, The National Drug Control Strategy: Budget Summary, Washington, February 1998: 112-3 <http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/pdf/sum_pt2.pdf>.

⁴ International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1997.

International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.