The National Interdiction Command and Control Plan of 1994 created three geographically-oriented counterdrug Joint Interagency Task Forces (JIATFs) and the Domestic Air Interdiction Coordination Center (DAICC). The JIATFs employ U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Coast Guard, and Department of Defense operational assets in the conduct of interdiction operations in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and South America. The JIATFs coordinate and direct the detection, monitoring, and sorting of suspect drug-trafficking aircraft and vessels and hand off targets to appropriate law enforcement authorities for apprehension. The JIATFs allow operational assets from different agencies to participate in highly coordinated, seamless operations. They also promote the exploitation of the Department of Defense's sophisticated command, control, communications, and intelligence infrastructure.
Other essential coordinating elements of the national counterdrug effort include the Department of Defense's Joint Task Force-Six and the multi-agency Operation Alliance. The former coordinates military support of federal, state, and local counterdrug efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border. The latter integrates the efforts of many agencies working to prevent the flow of illegal drugs across that border.
Timely and accurate tactical information can allow trafficker and criminal organization vulnerabilities to be exploited. In May of 1995, the Interdiction Intelligence Support Plan (IISP) was promulgated as an interagency plan to increase the quality and timeliness of available intelligence to the interdiction centers. The Anti-Drug Network (ADNET) was simultaneously established to serve as the communications backbone for the interdiction centers and supporting intelligence activities.
While national-level law enforcement intelligence organizations like the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) are making useful contributions, their full potential has yet to be realized. At the local level, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiatives and Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) are improving federal, state, and local coordination, but timely tactical intelligence and information sharing can still be improved.
There are opportunities for law enforcement agencies to coordinate actions better and reinforce each other's efforts so that operations, investigations, and prosecutions are supported more effectively by intelligence and information sharing. Consequently, a review of the existing counterdrug intelligence architecture offers the potential to make better use of available resources, share (while protecting) information more rapidly, and fully integrate coverage. The intent is to develop a system that can detect, monitor, and track domestic drug production and trafficking activities across a spectrum of illegal activities that includes cultivation, movement of precursors, smuggling, wholesale and retail distribution, and laundering of profits.