Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force

The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) specializes in the investigation and prosecution of drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and related criminal enterprises. The primary objective of the OCDETF program is to target, investigate and prosecute individuals who organize, direct, finance or otherwise engage in illegal drug trafficking enterprises, including large-scale money laundering organizations. These investigations are typically multi-year, multi-defendant complex endeavors which commonly demand sophisticated electronic and undercover techniques, and which require considerable prosecutorial involvement from their inception. The OCDETF Unit is comprised of experienced AUSAs who focus their extensive prosecutorial efforts in achieving the goals of the program.

 

The OCDETF Program utilizes an inter-agency strategy, to focus federal drug resources on reducing the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds by identifying and targeting the major trafficking organizations and eliminating the financial infrastructure of those organizations. OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its federal agency members - the FBI, DEA, IRS, ATF, United States Marshals Service and the Department of Homeland Security along with state and local law enforcement partners to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most significant drug trafficking and money laundering organizations in the region.

 

OCDETF is a national program consisting of nine regions, which operates across federal, state and national boundaries. The various federal agencies within OCDETF work through their respective coordinators and arrive at decisions by consensus. The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina is a member district of the Southeast Region, which covers North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. Our office has OCDETF AUSAs assigned to both the Asheville and Charlotte offices.