Attorney General Eric Holder on Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Asset Forfeiture Program at the National Leadership Conference

The following remarks were issued by Attorney General Eric Holder:

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to join you today. It is a pleasure to be here among friends and colleagues, many of whom I've had the distinct pleasure of working with over the last 30 years during my time in the Department. There are too many familiar faces in the room to begin naming names, but as I have said many times in the last six months, it is great to be back.

These Leadership Conferences always present a great opportunity for us to learn from one another and for the Department to recognize your many significant accomplishments. This year's conference is even more special, as 2009 marks the 25th year of the Asset Forfeiture Program. I am very pleased to join you in this Silver Anniversary celebration, and I share your pride in the Asset Forfeiture Program's quarter-century of success.

I am also proud to be here today to honor the OCDETF Program, which is now in its 27th year. The OCDETF strategy recognizes that the most effective way to fight sophisticated criminal organizations is by leveraging the strengths, resources, and expertise of federal, state and local investigative and prosecutorial agencies. The OCDETF Program does this through the formation of prosecutor-led, multi-agency task forces that successfully target drug traffickers through cutting edge, intelligence-based analysis and investigative work.

Working together, the OCDETF and Asset Forfeiture Programs have a proven track record of destroying drug trafficking organizations by arresting and prosecuting their leadership and by seizing their financial infrastructure. I am delighted to be here today with the leaders of these great programs.

I'd like to begin by talking about OCDETF, which truly is the strategic centerpiece of the Department's counter-narcotics effort. When I served as United States Attorney, I was fortunate to lead the OCDETF effort here in Washington, DC, and experienced first-hand the field-level effectiveness of the Program. Later, as Deputy Attorney General, I saw just how powerful the OCDETF model could be on a nationwide basis. Now, as Attorney General, I am proud to support your continued success. Through your constant innovation and steadfast commitment to cooperation with our state and local partners, you have enhanced immeasurably our nation's counter-narcotics capabilities.

Two examples of OCDETF's innovative and cooperative approach demonstrate the effectiveness of the OCDETF strategy: (1) the establishment of the OCDETF Fusion Center; and (2) the creation of permanent, co-located OCDETF Strike Forces.

The OCDETF Fusion Center was established to address a pressing need for reliable, in-depth intelligence -- from both human and electronic sources -- to target and attack sophisticated international drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Building on the OCDETF philosophy of cooperation and information-sharing, the Fusion Center brings together into a common database the unfiltered investigative information of each OCDETF member agency. Known as "Compass," this database allows analysts to connect investigative information from multiple agencies and to provide real-time analysis to agents and prosecutors in the field. The Fusion Center works in concert with the DEA-led Multi-Agency Special Operations Division to provide the most complete intelligence picture of criminal organizations currently available to U.S. law enforcement.

In recognition of the Fusion Center's effectiveness and the value of the Compass database, the International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center -- or "IOC-2," as it is known -- recently entered into a partnership with the OCDETF Fusion Center. The IOC-2 will add important new data sources to the Compass database as well as new analysts into the OCDETF Fusion Center. Through this partnership, we will broaden our capability to attack organized crime in all its forms.

A second illustration of OCDETF's success is the creation of permanent, co-located OCDETF Strike Forces in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Tampa, San Juan, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego -- and soon in El Paso. Because they are both permanent and co-located, these strike forces foster close working relationships across agencies and facilitate multiple, wide-reaching, and highly effective multi-agency investigations. Moreover, these Strike Forces have taken innovative steps to leverage non-OCDETF resources to their great advantage. For example, working with the Asset Forfeiture Fund, OCDETF and the National Drug Intelligence Center have begun to place Document and Media Exploitation Teams in the Atlanta and Houston Strike Forces. These DOMEX teams allow Strike Force analysts and agents to capture and exploit evidence in complex, fast-paced investigations, and to develop trial exhibits for prosecutors quickly and effectively. We look forward to adding DOMEX teams to other co-located strike forces in the near future, beginning with those along the Southwest Border.

Collaborative and innovative efforts such as the OCDETF Fusion Center and the OCDETF Strike Forces are critically important if we are to succeed in our efforts to combat international drug traffickers and money launderers. The criminal organizations that OCDETF targets are as sophisticated as they are ruthless. Indeed, some of these groups have even aligned themselves with terrorist organizations. We have seen that Mexican drug cartels in particular, pose both a national security threat to Mexico and an organized crime threat to the United States. The cartels send seemingly endless supplies of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and other illicit drugs across our borders and onto our streets. They operate seamlessly across local, state, and national boundaries. To combat this threat, we must also be seamless in our operations.

I know that all of you are up to the challenge. Since the inception of the Consolidated Priority Organization Target (or "CPOT") List in 2002, your OCDETF investigations have dismantled 39 CPOT organizations and have disrupted 20 more. Further, you have dismantled or disrupted more than 1,160 CPOT-linked organizations. The success of your operations is impressive, but not surprising. We can expect to achieve these kinds of results when we work together in innovative ways.

Together with OCDETF, the Asset Forfeiture Program has made, and continues to make, a critical difference in the fight against crime. Through your work, the Asset Forfeiture Program provides vitally important funding for law enforcement as well as resources that can be invested in community-changing programs such as "Weed and Seed." And of course, by seizing criminals' assets, you reduce the incentive to commit crime by taking money out of the hands of dangerous drug dealers and terrorists -- money that now works for law enforcement.

As with the OCDETF Program, the success of the Asset Forfeiture Program is a direct result of your hard work and your unfailing commitment to cooperation and collaboration at all levels and across all organizational lines. As Deputy Attorney General, it was my privilege to testify before Congress in support of asset forfeiture legislation. In that testimony, I emphasized the critical role that asset forfeiture plays not only in the fight against illegal drugs, but in the broader fight against other types of crime. Almost ten years to the day since that testimony -- and, appropriately, on the 25th anniversary of the Asset Forfeiture Program -- I am proud to say that the Asset Forfeiture Program remains a critical part of the Department's efforts to reduce and deter criminal activity.

Since 1984, more than $13 billion in net federal forfeiture proceeds have been deposited into the Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. During this same period, more than $4.5 billion has been equitably shared with more than 8,000 state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide, thereby supplementing their constrained resources without further taxing the public. Once left with no real opportunity to recover their losses, crime victims are now recouping greater sums than ever before. Approximately $500 million in payments have been paid to more 39,000 victims in fiscal year 2008 alone.

Yet, the impact of forfeiture is greater than just money. When we look back on the last 25 years of the program, we see a forfeiture regime that has been transformed from a collection of centuries-old laws designed to fight pirates, enforce customs laws and fight illegal contraband, into an array of modern law enforcement tools designed to combat 21st century criminals both at home and abroad. We now have the ability to deprive global criminals of their ill-gotten gains, to seize the instrumentalities of their trade, and to use the power of asset forfeiture to destroy their illegal enterprises.

Operation Honor Student, a case that will be honored here later tonight, illustrates the power of asset forfeiture and its devastating effect on organized criminal activity. In that case, a task force led by the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney's Office, the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Criminal Division, and the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations obtained the forfeiture of $2.7 million from the accounts of GeneScience, one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in China that had been involved in the illegal distribution of Human Growth Hormone into the United States. To accomplish this forfeiture, the task force employed a new statutory vehicle -- 18 U.S.C. section 981(k) -- which permitted the Government to seize the funds, physically located in China, from the corresponding accounts of Chinese banks in New York. This was the first use of section 981(k), enacted as part of the USA Patriot Act, against a Chinese entity, and its success has helped pave the way for subsequent investigations using this groundbreaking authority.

But not to minimize these impressive legal results, the true impact of Operation Honor Student lies in its practical effect on the illegal hGH market in the United States. Task force agents estimate that at the time of the investigation, GeneScience manufactured approximately 90% of the hGH being illegally sold and distributed in the United States. As a direct result of this seizure, GeneScience has stopped all shipments to the United States. So, through the use of a section 981(k) seizure, we were able to eliminate a supplier that represented 90% of an illegal drug market. Ninety percent.

Asset forfeiture plays a critical role not only in drug cases, but across the law enforcement spectrum -- from national security investigations, to securities fraud cases, to healthcare scams. And, of course, we cannot forget the most important -- and sometimes least heralded -- purposes of our Asset Forfeiture Program -- which is to make a meaningful difference in the lives crime victims by recovering stolen funds and property and returning them to their rightful owners.

When we look at the successes of both the Asset Forfeiture Program and the OCDETF Program, I cannot help but think about the possibilities, and challenges, for the next 25 years of these vitally important initiatives. While we have made great strides, international drug traffickers and money launderers continue to threaten our country. Criminal enterprises and terrorist networks continue to misuse our financial system for nefarious purposes. We can and we must do more. I am confident that under the leadership of those assembled here today, we will succeed.

The analysts, agents, and prosecutors of the OCDETF and Asset Forfeiture Programs are among the most talented and dedicated professionals in all of law enforcement. You protect this country day in and day out from the scourge of drugs and violence, and you do it with professionalism, creativity, and passion. I am proud to lead the Department of Justice, and am proud of each of you. Thank you for all that you do. Keep up the great work.

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U.S. Researcher Arrested in Russia for Investigating Organized Crime

A police official researching organized crime in Russia for a U.S. university was arrested after obtaining information on high-level corruption, colleagues say.

Col. Alexander Astafyev, 50, was studying the criminal takeover of businesses in Russia for Virginia's George Mason University when he was taken into custody, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Colleagues say Astafyev was arrested after obtaining evidence incriminating influential figures in both Moscow and Vladivostok. "If such a person will be imprisoned now, that means corruption has totally won in Russia," says Maria Solovienko, the editor of an independent newspaper in Vladivostok.

Astafyev visited Washington last year at the invitation of the U.S. State Department and worked closely with FBI agents investigating organized crime.

He was working on a paper about the criminal takeover of businesses with the help of corrupt officials, police or judges.

Thanks to UPI

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Two Police Detectives Honored for Mafia Probe

Like all of their cases, it began with a body.

Summoned to a rural road in Somis on the night of May 12, 2006, Ventura County Sheriff’s Detectives Mike Powers and Scott Peterson found Fred Williams shot dead in his sport utility vehicle, holding a cell phone in his right hand. His foot was pressed down on the gas pedal, revving the parked vehicle’s engine.

The body was found after a passing motorist called authorities. Someone heard a shot, but nobody in the neighborhood saw the murder.

Led by Powers and Peterson, detectives spent more than 19 months investigating the killing. They ultimately determined Williams, 29, was killed in a contract hit by a friend in the Black Mafia gang, of which he was also a member. The case ended with the 2008 convictions of three people, including the man accused of ordering the hit.

The case dealt a blow to the Black Mafia, a violent street gang involved in drug dealing and prostitution, authorities said.

This year, when the Peace Officers Association of Ventura County was winnowing a field of detectives from agencies around the county for its first Investigator of the Year award, the case led the group to choose Powers and Peterson. They received the award in May.

“They are the stuff of legend,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Temple, who worked with the detectives when she prosecuted the suspects in Williams’ murder.

To solve the Black Mafia case, the detectives had to get information from witnesses who included thugs, prostitutes and pimps, Temple said. She said she was impressed by Powers’ ability to “talk gangster” while maintaining his professionalism, and the way Peterson went into “gang-infested” communities where he was an outsider and persuaded people to talk to him.

A team for almost 10 years, Powers and Peterson said they were humbled by the award. "There are other detectives who deserve the award just as much,” Peterson said.

This was no 9 to 5. Powers and Peterson were among deputies who worked a total of 5,700 hours of overtime on the case. Authorities wiretapped more than 50,000 calls.

During the first seven months of the investigation, Powers and Peterson took 12 days off between them. During one stage of the investigation, they slept about four hours a night in a five-day period.

While it was hard on their personal lives, the soft-spoken detectives have fond memories of the investigation. “What keeps me going when I’m exhausted, quite frankly, is the mere fact that I just want to know what happened,” Peterson said.

On the night authorities found Williams, much about his death was a mystery. The detectives determined he was killed just after 9 p.m. and they suspected the killer was someone close to Williams.

The first big break came from the cell phone Williams held in his hand. Williams received his last call seconds before 9:01 p.m. from a number saved in the phone as BS, Powers said.

Oxnard police later helped the detectives determine BS stood for Baby Sag, the moniker of Bakeri Pitts, one of Williams’ longtime friends.

Investigators got records for the “BS” phone and learned it was first used two days before Williams’ killing and last used less than an hour after. “Based on that, we believed that phone was purchased with the intent to murder Fred Williams,” Powers said.

Investigators received permission to wiretap all of the numbers the “BS” phone had called, most of which belonged to members of the Black Mafia, the detectives said. After three days of listening, detectives “hit the home run” on May 19, the day of Williams’ funeral, Powers said.

Marlon Thornton asked Pitts when he would get his money and then told him a woman close to Williams had put up a memorial at the funeral, which upset Thornton, Powers said.

Thornton later told Pitts: “ ‘I don’t want to do any hits anymore,’ ” said the detective. “With that phone call, we pretty much had our suspects,” Powers said.

With the help of hundreds of people from agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, Oxnard police, U.S. Marshals and the California State Parole Board, the investigators worked to collect evidence on Pitts and Black Mafia boss John Lewis.

They arrested Pitts on June 9, three days after Thornton was taken into custody.

In the months that followed, investigators learned Williams’ death was part of a series of shootings that began when Jimmy Hunter killed Williams’ cousin Davaun Washington in November 2005, according to court testimony. Hunter was an alleged associate of the Black Mafia gang.

Williams thought one of his cousin’s killers was Kufanya Gentry, an associate of Lewis’, Powers said.

Williams shot Gentry with help from two other men, according to the detectives and court testimony. Gentry was seriously wounded, but survived.

During Lewis’ trial, prosecutors alleged he ordered Williams killed in retaliation for Gentry’s shooting. Pitts testified Lewis gave him $5,000 and a pound of marijuana to kill Williams. Thornton testified he drove the getaway car for the murder.

Lewis was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Pitts pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 55 years to life. Thornton pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

The case contributed to the murder convictions of Hunter in two 2005 murders, and Lewis Brown, another Black Mafia member, in a 2005 slaying, Peterson said.

Powers and Peterson continued investigating after Williams’ killers were sentenced, and their work led authorities to seize more than $8,000 from Lewis for restitution payments he owed Williams’ mother.

While monitoring Lewis’ jailhouse phone calls, Peterson heard Lewis trying to have his assets deposited in an account that couldn’t be tapped for victim restitution, the detective said. With Temple’s help, authorities got a court order and seized all but $300 of that money, Peterson said.

Several months after Williams’ killers were sentenced, his mother received a check. She thanked the detectives and hugged them both. “That’s a good feeling,” Powers said, recalling the moment.

When Pitts, Thornton and Lewis were taken to prison, Peterson went along. He was given the identification armbands the convicts wore in Ventura County Jail, which he keeps as a reminder of the killers he helped put away. “Just my little memento,” he said.

Thanks to Adam Foxman

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Mobsters on MySpace is Expanding to iPhone

The number one social game on MySpace is getting an iPhone app, as Mountain View-based Playdom announces Mobsters for iPhone.

Most significantly, the company tells Gamasutra that its 13.5 million users can now play the game on either MySpace or iPhone seamlessly. This brings the company into more direct competition with social gaming rivals like Zynga, operator of rival title Mafia Wars.

Further, existing players of Mobsters on MySpace will be able to transition their progress to the iPhone version at launch. But the company also tells us that it's adjusted gameplay in the iPhone version to account for the fact that the platform's less viral, and to allow those introduced to Mobsters via iPhone to still participate on the same level.

"For the pure iPhone players discovering the game for the first time, it’s a bigger game," Playdom product director Jesse Janosov says. "It's more content and more dynamic."

As more social game companies begin migrating and extending their content to the iPhone, it's sure to add a new dimension to the social gaming phenomenon.

Thanks to Leigh Alexander

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Top 10 John Dillinger Myths

On July 22, 1934—75 years ago today—Bureau agents put an end to John Dillinger’s reign of crime when he was shot and killed near the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Dillinger’s story has been told and retold ever since—including in a recent Hollywood movie. Along the way, fact and fiction have often been blended together. Here, from the FBI's perspective, are the top ten myths surrounding Dillinger and the facts as we know them.

Myth #10: Dillinger was a “Robin Hood” type criminal, a romantic outlaw.

Dillinger certainly had charm and charisma, but he was no champion of the poor or harmless thief—he was a hardened and vicious criminal. Dillinger stormed police stations in search of weapons and bulletproof vests. He robbed banks and stole cars. He shot at police officers (and may have killed one) and regularly used innocent bystanders as human shields to escape the law. Worse yet, he stood by as his ruthless gang members shot and killed people, including law enforcement officials. And what of his ill-gotten gains? They were used to line his own pockets and those of his partners in crime, not those of impoverished Americans in the midst of the Great Depression.

Myth #9: Dillinger was not carrying a gun the night he was killed.

Dillinger did have a gun on him—a .380 Colt automatic with the serial number scratched out. He reached for that gun when Bureau agents cornered him that fateful night. Not taking any chances, agents shot him before he had the chance to open fire.

Myth #8: John Dillinger was not killed at the Biograph Theater, a stand-in was.

If this sounds like a conspiracy theory, that’s because it is. Claims that a man resembling Dillinger was actually killed have been advanced with only circumstantial evidence. On the other hand, a wealth of information supports Dillinger’s demise. Special Agents M. Chaffetz and Earle Richmond, for example, took two sets of fingerprints from the body outside the Biograph Theater, and both were a positive match. Another set taken during the autopsy were also a match.

Myth #7: The FBI beat up Evelyn Frechette after her arrest.

Not so. Evelyn “Billie” Frechette—Dillinger’s one time girlfriend—was captured on April 9, 1934 and detained in our Chicago Field Office. She was interrogated about Dillinger around the clock for two days under hot lights. She refused to cooperate and was transferred to St. Paul to stand trail for harboring Dillinger. While her interrogation wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, at no time did agents attack or strike her. Frechette and her lawyer claimed we did during the trail—most likely to win sympathy.

Myth #6: The FBI took physical specimens from Dillinger’s corpse.

There is no evidence suggesting that the Bureau kept “souvenirs” from Dillinger’s body or in any way desecrated his remains. According to media reports, however, the local coroner later admitted taking pieces of Dillinger’s brain to examine.

Myth #5: East Chicago, Indiana Police killed Dillinger, not FBI agents.

While East Chicago Police officers were instrumental in helping the Bureau track down Dillinger the night he died, they were not in a position to shoot him. According to the drawn-up plans of the takedown and individual testimony, all of these officers were too far away to have an unobstructed shot. The closest—Captain Timothy O’Neil—was stationed across the street; his line of fire would have been blocked by special agents and civilians. In the end, it was Bureau agents who shot and killed Dillinger. Claims that someone else pulled the trigger came much later.

Myth #4: J. Edgar Hoover hired a bunch of killers to go after Dillinger.

Capturing John Dillinger was certainly the Bureau’s top priority in the summer of 1934, but we did not take a “dead or alive” approach as evidenced in our records and in later agent recollections. After the failed raid at Little Bohemia, we did hire several exceptional lawmen with firearms experience and steady gun-hands during times of danger, but only one ended up firing on Dillinger. The idea was to bring in professionals to help mentor less experienced agents, not to get Dillinger at all costs.

Myth #3: Chicago Special Agent in Charge Melvin Purvis single-handedly brought down Dillinger.

Purvis was a key figure, but he definitely did not shoot Dillinger (as some press accounts claimed) and his role in the final days of the case has often been overstated. After the Little Bohemia incident, Director J. Edgar Hoover appointed Inspector and Special Agent Samuel Cowley to oversee what had become a multi-state search. Cowley operated independently, but largely out of our Chicago office. FBI records suggest that he and Purvis worked together on the Dillinger investigation, but Cowley was clearly in charge until the end.

Myth #2: A “lady in a red dress” betrayed Dillinger.

Actually, it was a lady in an orange skirt and white blouse named Anna (Ana) Sage. Sage—a Romanian who was friends with Dillinger’s girlfriend at the time, Polly Hamilton—came up with the idea of turning in the fugitive after she was invited to go to the movies with the couple. She contacted the East Chicago, Indiana Police Department, who passed her on to Purvis. While Sage hoped that the FBI might help her avoid deportation, she also wanted the $5,000 reward. She told Purvis she would be attending a movie with Dillinger and Hamilton at the Biograph and would wear an orange skirt to set her apart from the crowd. (The red dress was an invention of the media—red tends to be a more alluring color and apparently sounded better in a headline.) After Dillinger’s death, Sage was paid the reward, but the FBI was not able to influence her deportation proceedings, and she was sent back to Romania.

Myth #1: Dillinger died expressing his love for Billie Frechette.

Popular culture likes to play up the “eternal romance” between Dillinger and Frechette, but evidence shows that they were in love only a short time. After Frechette was captured, Dillinger looked elsewhere for romance. He found it with Polly Hamilton—the woman he took to the movies the night he was killed. When he was shot, Dillinger had on him a gold ring inscribed with the words, “With all my love, Polly,” as well as a pocket watch that contained a picture of her. Dillinger is thought by some to have whispered something about Billie Frechette as he lay on the sidewalk dying. Several eyewitnesses said they saw Dillinger’s lips moving moments before he died, but no one was close enough to hear if he was whispering or simply exhaling for the last time.

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