General Information: |
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Year of Designation: 1990 |
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Geographic Area of Responsibility: |
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Florida: |
Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties |
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Contact: |
(954) 430-4906 |
Mission Statement:
The mission of South Florida HIDTA is to enhance and facilitate the coordination of South Florida's drug control efforts among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in order to eliminate or reduce drug trafficking and related money laundering and violence and their harmful consequences in South Florida and other regions of the United States.
Threat Abstract:
Florida is currently the 4th most populous state and is projected to become 3rd in the nation. The region includes the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolis, the 5th most populous metropolitan region of the United States. The South Florida region remains one of the major illicit drug centers in the United States.
Major drug trafficking operations � cocaine, heroin, marijuana, MDMA, and diverted pharmaceuticals are all concentrated heavily in the South Florida area. Cocaine alone is a multibillion dollar criminal enterprise orchestrated by international, regional and local criminal enterprises. The other major regional threat drugs � heroin, MDMA, and marijuana � represent similar criminal ventures of near equal proportion in the region.
The South Florida HIDTA region is located in the critical United States gateway from Latin America and the Caribbean It's geographic area is divided into four counties � Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach.
The area is a contiguous metropolitan corridor along the Atlantic Ocean. It includes South Florida's three major international airports, three major deep-water international seaports and an efficient ground-based network that includes well- developed interstate highway, rail, and other transportation systems.
The South Florida drug threat consists of the following major drugs, each with its significant regional and international money laundering activities:
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Colombian-supplied cocaine and heroin |
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Crack cocaine |
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European produced MDMA |
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Jamaican, Mexican, Canadian and local marijuana |
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Diverted Pharmaceuticals |
Colombian cocaine and heroin shipments continue to arrive in South Florida from Colombia and the Caribbean islands. These same drugs also arrive directly from other South American countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The drugs arriving in South Florida include major quantities earmarked for delivery to other
United States and European markets. In addition to the South Florida area, the drugs are transshipped to other areas to include New York and New Jersey in the northeast and numerous states in the Southwest and Central United States.
The South Florida HIDTA Initiatives identified a total of 255 drug trafficking organizations for CY 2003; there were 339 disruptions and 143 DTOs were dismantled. These drug trafficking and money laundering organizations represent the known threat organizations that are operating in the South Florida HIDTA region. All are considered national and/or international in scope.
Strategy Abstract:
The tri-county area of the South Florida HIDTA represents part of one federal district, the Southern District of Florida. Within it, each federal agency has a regional leader who represents his organization and jurisdiction, and ensures that his personnel pursue their agency's mission while they coordinate with other law enforcement organizations. Similarly, the state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies use the authority of their jurisdictions to carry out their missions in overlapping geographic areas. HIDTA-participating agencies submit annual proposals for multi-agency initiatives to address drug trafficking and related money laundering and violence identified by these agencies and in the HIDTA's Regional Threat Assessment. The proposals are grouped into task force initiatives instead of single agency programs. Once reviewed by a subcommittee and approved by the South Florida HIDTA Executive Board, collocated task forces that strategically attack criminal systems and target organizations implement initiatives.
The HIDTA Executive Board includes eight federal and eight state and local representatives. In FY04, it is chaired by Major Gary Moore, Broward Sheriff's Office, with a federal agency Principal Field Officer Mr. Marcos D. Jiminez, United States Attorney, as vice chair. The chair, vice chair and all Executive Board members are selected by their peers according to guidance from ONDCP. The South Florida HIDTA Director, Timothy D. Wagner, was nominated by the Executive Board and approved by the Director of ONDCP. The HIDTA Director and Deputy Director, Joel Widell, provide day-to-day program management, brokering and support to the initiatives approved by the Executive Board. He serves as a conduit for directives, policy and related administrative information required by ONDCP
The South Florida HIDTA-participating agencies focus on disrupting and dismantling international organizations and conspiracies devoted to smuggling illicit drugs into the United States and distributing them throughout the country, as well as organizations involved in laundering the profits of the illicit drug industry. They also target organizations and individuals that use violence in the furtherance of these criminal activities.
Investigative Support Center:
The SFLHIDTA Intelligence Center (SFLHIC) is a multi-agency investigative support center that provides analytical assistance through specialized intelligence for law enforcement agencies in South Florida. The Center provides actionable intelligence through target research, organization analysis, and development. Direct case support is available to more than 100 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties The SFLHIC is designed to take maximum advantage of today's state-of-the-art information technology such as the HIDTA Intranet Base Information System (HIBIS), which is a web-based portal that links seven subsystems into one web environment.
Participating Agencies:
FEDERAL: ATF, CBP, DEA, FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, ICE, IRS, NDIC, USAO, USBP, USCG, US Department of State, US Dept. of Defense, USPS, USSS
STATE/LOCAL: Aventura PD, Bal Harbour PD, Broward Sheriff's Office, Coral Gables PD, Coral Springs PD, Davie PD, Florida City PD, Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida National Guard, Fort Lauderdale PD, Glades PD, Hallandale PD, Hialeah PD, Hollywood PD, Homestead PD, Indiancreek PD, Key Biscayne PD, Key West PD, Lauderhill PD, Lighthouse Point PD, Margate PD, Medley PD, Miami Beach PD, Miami PD, Miami-Dade PD, Miramar PD, Monroe County Sheriff's Office, N. Bay Village PD, N Miami PD, Pembroke Pines PD, Plantation PD, State Attorneys Office, Sunny Isles Beach PD, Sunrise PD.
Significant Achievements: