Organized Crime and Drugs

The Seattle Office investigates multi-jurisdictional organizations or criminal enterprises which engage in organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, and traditional and non-traditional organized crime activities. This may include the investigation of organizations and enterprises engaged in violent criminal offenses. As appropriate, the Organized Crime/Drug Squad utilizes sophisticated investigative techniques, operates informants, and develops criminal intelligence. Those efforts culminate in building prosecutable cases against individuals and organizations which engage in some of the most serious criminal offenses threatening our communities.

At the core of the FBI's Organized Crime/Drug Program is the recognition that the greatest impact on organized crime and the drug problem is achieved by concentrating investigations on both major international and domestic criminal organizations and regional groups that control significant segments of illegal activities in the United States. The FBI's Organized Crime/Drug Program clearly focuses investigative resources in an organizationally-based, intelligence-driven approach, to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations and enterprises through prosecution, as well as the seizure and forfeiture of assets used in, and derived from, criminal activity.

In addition, the Seattle area is now a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), which is funded by participating agencies and the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C. Seattle was established as a HIDTA in October 1997 to provide a more complete picture of illegal drug trafficking organizations than was possible through the efforts of any single law enforcement agency.