A training program conducted jointly by the FBI’s Western Hemisphere Transnational Organized Crime Operations Unit (TOC-West) of the Criminal Investigation Division and the United States Department of Defense (DOD) has just been launched to extend the fight against drug cartels and organized crime to the home countries of these groups.
The FBI’s Western Hemisphere TOC-West Verified Teams Program brings together personnel from the FBI, the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group Green Berets to train national civilian law enforcement forces in partner countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in crucial operational skills. These teams will be responsible for investigating transnational criminal organizations, including cartels and other criminal organizations based in those countries, according to the FBI Press Office on June 30 and shortly thereafter published in the FBI magazine.
FBI OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the FBI and its partners are to identify the leaders of criminal organizations, the people who launder money on behalf of those leaders, their “security” and “enforcers” whose job is to retaliate against those who incite these criminal groups, the perpetrators of violent crimes, and fentanyl traffickers and suppliers, a genuine problem for American authorities.
“We want to target the entire organization,” Mike explained to the FBI News Service. Mike is a Supervisory Special Agent who serves as the program coordinator for the FBI’s Office of the Attachés (ALAT) for TOC-West, the Verified Teams and Training. He is also the FBI liaison to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The program aims to train police officers in these countries to investigate crimes such as large-scale international drug trafficking, money laundering, and violent crimes such as kidnappings, extortions, and homicides. The teams also help the Office investigate so-called white-collar crimes and kidnappings for ransom aimed at U.S. citizens, regardless of whether a cartel is responsible. In addition, these teams can be used to investigate high-profile matters, such as the disappearance of U.S. citizens while traveling.
“As part of their own agencies, they have their own chain of command, their own lieutenants and their own captains,” Mike explained about his international partners in the law enforcement forces that make up TOC-West-approved teams. “But the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division (ALAT), as the team’s advisor, can provide guidance and direction,” he added.
Each assessed team includes a commanding officer from its own agency who oversees it. However, the TOC-West CID ALAT acts as advisor and guide to the team, helping to set investigative priorities and develop an investigation strategy, offering operational guidance and providing training opportunities and logistical support. Each ALAT ensures communication and coordination between the evaluated team, CID staff, and field agents in field offices across the United States.
This innovative collaboration with international law enforcement agencies allows leveraging the investigative powers of those agencies in-country. In addition, Mike added that “ongoing collaboration with a core group of trusted partners enables the Office to combat transnational organized crime threats in real time.”
The CID TOC-West ALAT in Guatemala agreed and noted that these partners bring “local precision and legitimacy” to the FBI’s missions at cartel flashpoints.
“Their deep knowledge of the local environment, the laws, and the criminal networks allows FBI agents to work effectively in complex environments,” stated the ALAT. “Without their collaboration, the capture of key figures within transnational criminal organizations would be much harder, if not impossible,” they added.
For example, the Deputy Superintendent of the National Police of Colombia, who also participates in a team investigated by the FBI, said that his broad experience monitoring criminals who helped move drugs across international borders taught him to “anticipate their modus operandi, their routes, and the steps they take when moving their drug shipments.”
“The ability to share intelligence, conduct parallel investigations, and carry out joint operations against transnational criminal organizations of mutual interest is invaluable,” stated the FBI’s TOC-West ALAT in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “Collaboration between verified teams and the FBI enhances the FBI’s ability to address transnational organized crime threats, making the United States safer,” he added.
The FBI currently has six verified TOC-West teams: one in Colombia, one in the Dominican Republic, one in Guatemala, one in Honduras, and two in Mexico. The FBI is also in the process of adding an additional team in Panama. The TOC-West Operations Unit is exploring further expansion into other parts of Latin America.
The FBI considers several factors when deciding where to establish new verified TOC-West teams, including the location of priority threats and staff levels.
According to the TOC-West ALAT program coordinator, transnational organized crime activity has become increasingly globalized and interconnected.
“The actors in transnational organized crime are integrated and diversified,” Mike explained. “They do not respect arbitrary limits, such as national or administrative borders imposed by governments or law enforcement. They operate wherever they can profit, and that means we must do the same,” he added.
For this reason, the rapid expansion of the TOC-West Verified Team Program has been a direct response to the evolving threat.
The FBI and its partners have long been committed to using verified teams to stay at the forefront of the TOC threat. The U.S. agency established its first two TOC-West verification teams in Colombia and the Dominican Republic more than 10 years ago. Its partners at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also have their own verification teams.
Eric Geressy, a U.S. Army veteran and current senior civilian official at the Department of Defense who has conducted training exercises with verified teams for years, described the TOC-West version as “a final force” in pursuing some of the worst offenders.
“For the Department of Defense, as with the FBI and all interagency partners, we consider joint training efforts crucial to the success and survival of all. They must be arduous and realistic, so that we are all ready to act when required,” Geressy said. “Training and collaboration are the best way to protect the American public and all of our allied countries.”
