Two Federal Law Enforcement Task Force Officers Receive National Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force Awards

RALEIGH, N.C. – Today, the Director of the Department of Justice Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) recognized Jason Corprew, a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Kevin Perry, a task force officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, for their outstanding work with and their commitment to the OCDETF Program. Officer Corprew is an officer with the Wilson Police Department, and Officer Perry is a deputy sheriff with the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office.  Both officers were nominated due to their work on OCDETF operations in the Eastern District of North Carolina and were two out of nine awardees in the country. 

The National OCDETF Awards recognize outstanding investigations, as well as individuals that best exemplify the prosecutor led, intelligence driven, multi-agency mission of the OCDETF program. These officers demonstrated leadership and commitment, overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles to bring an investigation from sometimes one traffic stop or single drug arrest to targeting and dismantling of national and international criminal organizations.  These investigations have resulted in numerous arrests and successful prosecutions, and lengthy sentences from 20 years to life imprisonment for some of the most dangerous individuals involved in these organizations.  Officers Corprew and Perry relentlessly pursued these organizations, spending countless hours over several years to bring members of the organizations to justice.  These officers were the backbones of complicated investigations, taking these dangerous individuals off the streets of the Eastern District of North Carolina and off the streets of multiple other states and countries.

The Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces Program was established in 1982 to mount a comprehensive attack against organized drug traffickers.  Today, the OCDETF Program is the centerpiece of the United States Attorney General’s drug strategy to reduce the availability of drugs by disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations and money laundering organizations and related criminal enterprises.  The OCDETF strategy aims to focus federal drug resources on reducing the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds by identifying and targeting major trafficking organizations, eliminating the financial infrastructure of drug organizations by emphasizing financial investigations and asset forfeiture, redirecting federal drug enforcement resources to align them with existing and emerging drug threats, and conducting expanded, nationwide investigations against all the related parts of the targeted organizations.

The awards were presented by Robert J. Higdon, Jr, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  Principle Associate Director of the OCDETF Program, Gil Guerrero, OCDETF Southeast Regional Director Michael Smith, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Raleigh, NC, office, Matthew O’Brien, and ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Wilmington, NC, office, Shawn Stallo, also made remarks.  During the presentation of the awards, special appreciation was shown for the Chief of the Wilson Police Department, Thomas Hopkins, and the Sheriff of Sampson County, Jimmy Thornton, for their departments’ willingness to contribute these Officers and many other resources to the mission of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.