Senators Coons, Whitehouse, colleagues demand answers from Justice Dept. on decision to shutter specialized unit for cracking down on global drug crime

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and several of their colleagues sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi questioning the Department of Justice's plan to end the successful Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program.

"As the Department's website notes, OCDETF 'is the centerpiece of the Attorney General's strategy to combat transnational-organized crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation.' OCDETF oversees coordination of thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to implement a national strategy to dismantle transnational drug cartels, the financial networks that support them, and the flow of drugs from these cartels into the United States," wrote the senators.

The OCDETF program is the largest anti-crime task force in the country. In just the past two months, OCDETF resources have been used to secure prison sentences for two individuals operating a clandestine fentanyl lab in South Carolina and to take down three prolific Chinese money launderers who have pled guilty to laundering tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Many OCDETF investigations target the cartels' financial networks, an often-overlooked component of the U.S. strategy to combat drug-trafficking organizations. In Fiscal Year 2023, OCDETF investigations resulted in forfeitures and seizures totaling more than $423 million.

Reporting from Bloomberg revealed that the Trump administration plans to eliminate the OCDETF program, including its support for specialized investigators and prosecutors. Such a decision would kneecap America's ability to dismantle cartels trafficking illicit fentanyl.

"We seek to fully understand the Department's plans to cease OCDETF operations. We also seek to ensure that the federal government continues to have a coordinated strategy for working with state and local stakeholders to investigate and hold accountable transnational criminal organizations operating in, or financing the operations of organizations that operate in, the United States," added the senators.

The senators requested answers to the following questions by June 13, 2025:

1. How many cases has OCDETF led, or supported with funds, intelligence, or other resources, that disrupted fentanyl traffickers' production, distribution, financing, or money laundering networks?
2. Does the Department intend to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations? If so, please specify how.
3. If the Department intends to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations:
4. 1. Why is the department choosing to cease or significantly reduce OCDETF operations?
   2. How will the department ensure that ongoing OCDETF investigations and prosecutions continue uninterrupted?
   3. According to GAO, "OCDETF cases must have a financial component" to facilitate the targeting of financial networks underpinning drug trafficking organizations. How will the Department ensure that OCDETF-enabled inter-agency coordination on investigations into the financial networks of fentanyl traffickers and transnational criminal organizations continues uninterrupted?
   4. How will the department ensure that federal, state, and local law enforcement relying on OCDETF's Fusion Center intelligence products are not hampered by a cessation or reduction of OCDETF operations?
   5. Does the department intend to designate another entity to coordinate investigations and prosecutions of transnational criminal organizations, unrelated to low-level offenders? If so, which entity?

In addition to Senators Coons and Whitehouse, the letter is signed by U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

The text of the letter is available here.