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Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT)

OPDAT
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OPDAT at a Glance

International Presence

  • Offices in approximately 40 Countries, serving bilateral assistance programs and regional capacity building missions
  • Approximately 60 Legal Advisors and International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Advisors supported by approximately 70 local staff

Core Competencies

  • Criminal procedure code reform
  • Criminal justice sector institutional improvement
  • Task force development
  • Capacity building of foreign prosecutors, investigators, and judges
  • Victim assistance and advocacy
  • Technical assistance and case-based mentoring in the following areas:
    • Counter-transnational organized crime, including gangs
    • Counterterrorism and counter terrorist financing
    • Anti-corruption
    • Anti-money laundering and asset forfeiture
    • Human smuggling and trafficking
    • Foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs)
    • Cybercrime and cybersecurity
    • Intellectual property rights
    • Counter-narcotics

About

OPDAT was created in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in 1991 in response to the growing threat of transnational crime.  OPDAT builds strong foreign partners who can work with the United States to enhance cooperation in transnational cases and to fight crime before it reaches our shores. 

Learn More

Leadership

Erik Peterson
Director

Andrew P. Segrest
Deputy Director

George Huber
Deputy Director

Jill Westmoreland Rose
Deputy Director & Counsel for Global Counterterrorism Programs


Contact

202-514-1323

OPDAT.Info@USDOJ.GOV

OPDAT was created in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in 1991 in response to the growing threat of transnational crime.  OPDAT builds strong foreign partners who can work with the United States to enhance cooperation in transnational cases and to fight crime before it reaches our shores.

OPDAT has Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs), Intermittent Legal Advisors (ILAs), and International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Advisors (ICHIPs) posted around the world providing expert assistance and case-based mentoring to foreign counterparts to develop justice systems that can combat transnational crime, corruption, and terrorism in furtherance of U.S. national security.

OPDAT keeps Americans safe from violent crime by increasing partner nation capacity to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations at the source.  OPDAT works with foreign counterparts to strengthen capabilities to investigate and prosecute organized crime, terrorism, terrorism financing, money laundering, corruption, human smuggling and trafficking, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, intellectual property crime, and other transnational crimes that are harmful to U.S. interests at home and abroad.

OPDAT’s programs are funded through interagency agree­ments between OPDAT and these United States Government partners:

  • U.S. Department of State
  • U.S. Department of Defense

OPDAT draws on USG and Department of Justice resources and expertise to develop foreign criminal justice sector institutions and enhance the administration of justice abroad.  OPDAT programs are designed to strengthen the link between security sector assistance and tangible law enforcement and justice sector outcomes.  Additionally, DOJ’s overseas operational and assistance engagements reinforce one another, consistent with U.S. national security objectives, so that the Department can use the full force of its authority and expertise to work with foreign governments in combating transnational crime and advancing security.  Through OPDAT’s programs, partnerships are developed with foreign justice systems that in turn build capacity to achieve national security and justice priorities.

The majority of OPDAT’s programs are implemented in country by Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs), who are experienced U.S. prosecutors attached to U.S. embassies for at least one year, typically longer.  With the assistance of their Foreign Service National staff, they assess host country criminal justice institutions and procedures; draft, review and comment on legislation and criminal enforcement policy; and provide technical assistance to host country officials at the Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor General’s Office, or to prosecutors, judges, and other justice sector personnel.  OPDAT also deploys Intermittent Legal Advisors (ILAs), U.S. prosecutors who are on targeted assignments of less than a year.

Finally, OPDAT has developed a global network of International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Advisors (ICHIPs) to advise foreign counterparts on strengthening investigations, prosecutions, and cross-border cooperation against cyber and IP crimes.  RLA, ILA, and ICHIP programs are overseen by Headquarters regional teams. At any given time, OPDAT has approximately 60 RLAs, ILAs, and ICHIPs serving in approximately 40 countries on bilateral and regional capacity building programs.

In addition to programs in the field, OPDAT headquarters staff plan and implement programs and workshops in countries without an RLA, ILA, or ICHIP presence.

These programs include the innovative Judicial Studies Institute, based in Puerto Rico, which builds judicial capacity throughout the Western Hemisphere; the Battlefield Evidence Initiative, which ensures that enemy material / battlefield evidence is available to prosecutors investigating and prosecuting foreign terrorist fighters; and the Global Anti-Corruption Rapid Response Fund, which provides technical assistance and/or case-based mentoring at short notice to foreign partners seeking to expand their capacity to investigate and prosecute corruption and related offenses, and to recover assets.

OPDAT focuses on long-term, comprehensive, and sustainable justice reform.  It accomplishes this mission through the development of sound legislative frameworks and programming consistent with international standards and criminal justice instruments (e.g., UN Convention against Corruption).  Programs are tailored to host country legal infrastructures as well as international norms and standards.  OPDAT coordinates these efforts with the U.S. interagency and the international community.

OPDAT enjoys unique access to some of the most experienced criminal justice experts in the nation.  The Department of Justice, with over 5,000 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and over 600 Criminal Division attorneys, provides a primary source of expertise.  Depending upon the needs of the host country, OPDAT also coordinates with other Department of Justice components, including the National Security Division; Environment and Natural Resources Division; National Advocacy Center; ATF; DEA; FBI; and U.S. Marshals Service.  In addition, OPDAT can utilize the law enforcement expertise of other federal departments, such as Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as state and local prosecutors’ offices.  OPDAT also coordinates with U.S. judges and with professional organizations.