NCJ Number
137294
Date Published
1990
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This report documents the implementation of California's Crackdown Task Force Program, which was established in 1989 by the California legislature to fight cocaine trafficking and conduct parallel money laundering investigations in California.
Abstract
The legislature appropriated $17.9 million for the program's first full year of operation, based upon a successful pilot program. Using task forces, CrackDown coordinates State and local law enforcement efforts against Colombian cartels and street gangs engaged in cocaine trafficking and related money laundering activities. State special agents assigned to intelligence and narcotics enforcement work with local narcotics agents in seven cities where the problem is most severe. The task forces also work with Federal agents to identify, investigate, and prosecute cocaine distribution networks. Since the program's start in October 1989, 186 investigations have led to the arrest of 419 cocaine traffickers, the confiscation of more than $7 million in cash and other assets, and the seizure of 1,592 pounds of cocaine. For the first time, a comprehensive, coordinated effort to integrate cocaine trafficking intelligence gathering, analysis, and dissemination with enforcement has been formally implemented in California. Appended data and supplementary information