Not only does CTAC have the statutory responsibility for coordinating the
entire federal counterdrug law enforcement R&D; program but we also seek
out and support scientists who are creating exciting new technologies to
reduce drug demand or supply. Much of what we initiate is done in partnership
with other agencies. Although our budget is quite small, our project
portfolio is very diverse and its impact is being felt well beyond the
federal law enforcement community, where some of the systems have
already been associated with world famous investigations.
For instance, when FBI agents tracked and arrested the CIA traitor Aldridge
Ames, they did it with the help of an advanced surveillance system
originally developed by CTAC-sponsored scientists for extremely complex
counterdrug cases. The FBI's system is capable of simultaneously following
hundreds of vehicles and it is in routine use against drug traffickers.
Today, scaled down versions of that system are available to local and state
police through the Technology Transfer Program, adding significant power
to local law enforcement's attack on increasingly technologically sophisticated,
tightly organized drug traffickers. While it would be wrong to say
that these systems have crippled the drug dealers, there is no question
that their bite has been deep and painful for some criminals. And we've
only just begun to hand out the sharp, high tech teeth.
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ABOVE: Tracking cocaine conspirators
in New York State. |
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In one Southwest town, city cops equipped with a CTAC tracking system
seized $1,000,000 in property, almost half a ton of marijuana, and busted
twelve suspects.
One West Coast local-county-state narcotics task force used one of our
surveillance systems to inflict disruption and loss of cash and product on
Mexican cartels to the tune of hundreds of kilos of cocaine and well over
a ton of marijuana.
Local cops in one Southern city and Sheriff's officers in a different part of
the South are using one of our surveillance systems to shake up local drug
dealers. More than 60 indictments have been handed down in those two
investigations, thus far.
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| ABOVE: Aldrich Ames leaves Federal Courthouse in Virginia following arraignment. |
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| ABOVE: State Prosecutor's display of drugs seized in Oklahoma raids. |
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