OCDETF Training for Law Enforcement Sponsored by the U.S. Attorney’s Office

          U.S. Attorney Alicia A.G. Limtiaco, Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), announced that the Regional Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) coordinators from the Pacific Region made their annual visit to Guam and the NMI and provided training to law enforcement agencies.  The training was conducted by Thomas Colthurst, OCDETF Regional Director, Steve Jensen, OCDETF Regional Coordinator of Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), and Deborah Wee, OCDETF Regional Coordinator of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).  The training was held at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Guam on March 11, 2015, and was attended by approximately 30 local and federal law enforcement officers from Guam and Saipan, NMI.

          The training topics included “Money Laundering and Financial Analysis,” “OCDETF Airport Security Initiative” and “Searches and Seizure.”

          The OCDETF 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.

          OCDETF investigations involve a focused multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

          OCDETF investigations involve federal agents and local law enforcement officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the IRS, the U.S. Coast Guard Criminal Investigative Service (CGIS), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and numerous local agencies such as the Guam Police Department (GPD), Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency (GCQA) and others.