NDIC Accomplishments - 2006

The pages below highlight significant accomplishments of the NDIC.

FY2007     FY2006

NDIC Accomplishments, Fiscal Year 2006

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Strategic Intelligence

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, our intelligence analysis staff produced more than 40 major recurring assessments, including NDIC's signature product, the National Drug Threat Assessment 2006. This threat assessment is a comprehensive account of the threat to the United States posed by the trafficking and abuse of illicit and pharmaceutical drugs. This annual assessment was disseminated to more than 1,000 VIPs, including the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), members of Congress, and key officials in other federal partner agencies in the war against drugs. NDIC also produced nine regional drug threat assessments for the U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program and 32 major city market analyses for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program. These reports provided a strategic overview of the illicit drug situation in each respective region or market by highlighting significant trends and law enforcement concerns and are frequently used by the requestors when developing their annual strategies or allocating assets and resources.

In addition to producing our recurring reports in FY2006, NDIC also assisted partner agencies in preparing assessments on topics often closely associated with drug trafficking. For example, we provided analytic support to the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and were a principal contributor to the U.S. Money Laundering Threat Assessment (December 2005). This was the first government-wide analysis of money laundering in the United States. From this assessment, the National Money Laundering Strategy was developed. We also provided analytic support to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Counter Narcotics Enforcement on an ongoing drugs and terrorism nexus project and prepared both classified and unclassified versions of Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Establishing the Link. This report was used by a high-level official within the Department of Homeland Security in testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. NDIC also supported the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) National Gang Intelligence Center in preparing an assessment focusing on the activities and internationalization of the violent MS 13 (Mara Salvatrucha) gang. This assessment was shared with Salvadoran law enforcement officials who were investigating MS 13.

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Document Exploitation

While our intelligence services and products typically have a conceptual impact by adding to the knowledge or understanding of the threats posed by drug trafficking, our Document Exploitation (Doc Ex) program often has an instrumental impact by assisting in the investigation and prosecution of drug traffickers. That impact is evident in our FY2006 successes. In FY2006, NDIC conducted 60 Doc Ex missions in support of investigations targeting illicit drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, and other criminal activities that impact U.S. national security. Almost half of the missions supported OCDETF investigations, and more than half supported the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) or FBI investigations. Other Doc Ex missions were conducted on behalf of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Attorneys Offices (USAO), U.S. Department of State, and others. These missions were instrumental in identifying previously unknown associates and hidden assets and frequently provided significant assistance in the successful prosecution of offenders.

Also in FY2006, NDIC conducted a series of missions in support of Operation Twin Oceans, a Special Operations Division, OCDETF, and Consolidated Priority Organizational Target-associated initiative targeting a drug trafficking organization that transported multiton quantities of cocaine for at least five different drug trafficking organizations. The cocaine was destined for the United States and Europe. By early 2007, Colombian authorities had seized approximately 130 properties, 23 vehicles, and 4 fishing vessels as a result of Operation Twin Oceans. The total value of the seizures was estimated to be approximately $70 million. Additionally, Colombian authorities had seized 58 bank accounts worth approximately $100,000.

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Information Sharing and Training

Finally in FY2006, NDIC continued to provide library and training services to the law enforcement and intelligence communities. NDIC produces and disseminates the Counternarcotics Publications Quarterly (CPQ), an annotated and indexed bibliography of reports, intelligence memoranda, papers, and target studies submitted by federal, state, and local agencies. More than 280 copies of the classified CPQ were disseminated to federal officials and personnel at the headquarters of the Defense Intelligence Agency, DEA, FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and ONDCP; and more than 660 copies of the sensitive CPQ were distributed to FBI and DEA field offices as well as USAO district offices, state police headquarters, and sheriffs' offices.

NDIC also trained more than 3,700 federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel in 59 sessions on topics related to basic drug intelligence analysis. NDIC trained approximately 1,445 DEA professionals in 22 sessions and 382 HIDTA professionals in 14 sessions. In addition, NDIC conducted four iterations of the Multiagency Course, an intensive 1-week, video tele-training, entry-level drug intelligence analysis course, taught by instructors from NDIC and other federal agencies and attended by more than 220 professionals.

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