Divisions
Criminal Division
Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Criminal Division are assigned to one of five units, each responsible for prosecuting certain categories of Federal crimes.
The largest single unit is the Controlled Substance Unit which prosecutes major narcotics traffickers with an emphasis on conspiracies responsible for importation and distribution of substantial quantities of illegal drugs. The majority of attorneys in this unit are members of the Great Lakes Region of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. The task force conducts investigations of selected conspiracies with the emphasis on detecting and seizing the financial assets of major drug traffickers.
The Economic Crime Unit conducts investigations and prosecutions of a wide variety of white collar crimes, including large-scale fraud upon businesses and individuals, large-scale fraud involving identity theft, fraud upon government programs, health care fraud, corporate fraud, computer crime, and criminal intellectual property violations. The cases handled by this unit frequently involve lengthy investigations, complex financial analysis, and voluminous document examination.
The General Crimes Unit is responsible for a wide variety of offense categories, including firearms, immigration, bank robbery, embezzlement, counterfeiting, smuggling, food and drug, and Postal Violations. It is a higher volume unit, and many of the newer Criminal AUSAs are assigned to this component.
The Special Prosecutions Unit prosecutes corruption by public officials, offenses committed by traditional organized crime networks and emerging organized groups involved in criminal activity, environmental offenses, criminal violations of civil rights laws, and non-drug money laundering.
The National Security Unit investigates and prosecutes matters involving national security including individuals and organizations that engage in foreign counter-intelligence, espionage, and those who plan, financially support, or carry out international and domestic terrorist activities. The unit also has primary responsibility for coordinating the investigation and prosecution of certain transnational organized crime groups involved in alien smuggling, cash smuggling and the operation of illegal unlicenced money transmitting businesses.