Fusing drug enforcement: a study of the El Paso Intelligence Center
2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/02684527.2015.1100373
ISSN1743-9019
Autores Tópico(s)Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
ResumoAbstractThis article examines the evolution of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a key intelligence component of the Drug Enforcement Administration, to shed light on fusion efforts in drug enforcement. Since 1974, EPIC has strived to fuse the resources and capabilities of multiple government agencies to counter drug trafficking and related threats along the Southwest US border. While undergoing a steady growth, the Center has confronted a host of challenges that illuminate the uses and limits of multi-agency endeavors in drug enforcement. An evaluative study of the Center shows that it is well aligned with the federal government priorities in the realm of drug enforcement; however the extent to which the Center's activities support the government's efforts in this domain is not so clear. The Center needs to improve the way it reviews its own performance to better adapt and serve its customers. AcknowledgmentsThanks to Stephen Coulthart, Brent Durbin, Angela Lucero, Bea Marr, Larry Valero and the anonymous reviewers for their comments, suggestions and help. This article was presented at the 2015 ISA Annual Convention in New Orleans, LA and the 2015 ISSS-ISAC Joint Annual Conference in Springfield, MA.Notes1 Todd Masse, Siobhan O'Neil and John Rollins, 'Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress', Congressional Research Service, 6 July 2007; US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, 3 October 2012; Jason Barnosky, "Fusion Centers: What's working and what isn't", 17 March 2015, (accessed 22 July 2015).2 Philip Zelikow et al. (eds) The 9/11 Commission Report: final report of the National Commission on terrorist attacks upon the United States (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004), pp.399–423; Calvert Jones, 'Intelligence reform: The logic of information sharing', Intelligence and National Security 22/3 (2007), pp.384–401; Sharon S. Dawes, Anthony M. Cresswell, Theresa A. Pardo, 'From "Need to Know" to "Need to Share": Tangled Problems, Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector Knowledge Networks', Public Administration Review 69/3 (2009), pp.392–402.3 White House, Executive Order 13354, 27 August 2004; Zelikow et al., The 9/11 Commission Report, p.403; Government Accountability Office, 'Information Sharing: DHS Is Assessing Fusion Center Capabilities and Results, but Needs to More Accurately Account for Federal Funding Provided to Centers', 4 November 2014, p.6.4 Homeland Security Council, National Strategy for Homeland Security, October 2007, p.49; Office of the Director of National Intelligence, National Intelligence Strategy, August 2009, p.14; White House, National Security Strategy of the United States of America, May 2010, p.20; Office of the Director of National Intelligence, National Intelligence Strategy, 2014, pp.12–13; Department of Justice, Fiscal Years 2014–2018, Strategic Plan, pp.21, 27–28.5 US Congress, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, 108th Congress, 2nd sess., 17 December 2004, Sec. 1016. On the US culture of divisiveness, see: Philip H. Davies, 'Intelligence and the machinery of government: conceptualizing the intelligence community', Public Policy and Administration 25/1 (2010), pp.29–46; Roger Z. George and Harvey Rishikof, 'The National Security Enterprise: Institutions, Cultures, and Politics', in Roger Z. George and Harvey Rishikof (eds.), The National Security Enterprise (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2011), pp.5–6.6 Department of Justice, Fusion Center Guidelines. Developing and Sharing Information and Intelligence in a New Era, 2008, pp.2, 12; Department of Homeland Security, Fusion Center Guidelines, 2006, p.3; Patrick Walsh, Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis (New York: Routledge, 2011), p.110; Robert W. Taylor and Amanda L. Russell, 'The failure of police 'fusion' centers and the concept of a national intelligence sharing plan', Police Practice and Research 13/2 (2012), p.185.7 Estimates of the total amount of federal dollars spent by the Department of Homeland Security alone on state and local fusion center activities from 2003 to 2011 vary from US $278 million to US $1.4 billion. Government Accountability Office, 'Information Sharing', p.6; US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, p.9.8 John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, 'Multilateral Counter-Insurgency Networks', Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 11/2-3 (2002), pp.353–368; John P. Sullivan and James J. Wirtz, 'Terrorism Early Warning and Counterterrorism Intelligence", International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 21/1 (2008), pp.13–25; Joseph W. Pfeifer, 'Network Fusion: Information and Intelligence Sharing for a Networked World', Homeland Security Affairs 8/1 (2012), pp.1–19.9 For examples of fusion in other contexts, see: Peter Jackson, France and the Nazi Menace: intelligence and policy making, 1933–1939 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp.41–42; Michael S. Goodman, 'Learning to Walk: The Origins of the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee', International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 21/1 (2007), pp.40–56; James J. Wirtz and Jon J. Rosenwasser, 'From Combined Arms to Combined Intelligence: Philosophy, Doctrine and Operations', Intelligence and National Security 25/6 (2010), pp.725–743; Ben Connable, Military Intelligence Fusion for Complex Operations: A New Paradigm (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2012).10 On the use of task forces in drug interdiction, see: Edmund F. McGarrell and Kip Schlegel, 'The implementation of federally funded multijurisdictional drug task forces: Organizational structure and interagency relationships', Journal of Criminal Justice 21/3 (1993), pp.231–244; David L. Carter and Jeremy G. Carter, 'The intelligence fusion process for state, local, and tribal law enforcement', Criminal Justice and Behavior 36/12 (2009), pp.1324–6.11 The DEA is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the controlled substance laws and regulations of the United States.12 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series – An Overview of the El Paso Intelligence Center', 1 December 2011 (accessed 1 July 2015).13 Ratcliffe defines crime intelligence as 'the result of the analysis of not only covert information from surveillance, offender interviews and confidential human sources (informants), but also crime patterns and police data sources as well as socio-demographic data and other non-police data.' Jerry Ratcliffe, Intelligence-Led Policing (Cullompton: Willan, 2008), p.7.14 Illinois Interview #3 (with a DHS official) in Erik J. Dillman, 'Federalism & Homeland Security: A Comparative Study', A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Saint Louis University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy, 2008, p.406.15 Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, 2013.16 Department of Homeland Security, 'Top Story: El Paso Intelligence Center turns raw data into actionable intelligence', 26 June 2012, (accessed 20 June 2015).17 Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, 2008, p.191; Anthony Placido, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center: Beyond the Border', April 2014, (accessed 2 March 2015).18 Jerome P. Bjelopera and Kristin Finklea, 'Domestic Federal Law Enforcement Coordination: Through the Lens of the Southwest Border', Congressional Research Service, 3 June 2014, p.27; Ratcliffe, Intelligence-Led Policing, p.189; Walsh, Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis, pp.147–151.19 See the framework developed in Walsh, Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis, p.137.20 Bjelopera and Finklea, 'Domestic Federal Law Enforcement Coordination', p.27; Ratcliffe, Intelligence-Led Policing, p.194.21 Richard Nixon, 'Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control', 17 June 1971, (accessed 3 September 2015). On the 'war on drugs', see: Christina J. Johns, Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure (New York: Praeger, 1992); Steven B. Duke and Albert Gross, America's Longest War: Re-Thinking our Tragic Crusade against Drugs (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1994); Andrew B. Whitford and Jeff Yates, Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), pp.34–73.22 White House, Reorganization Plan No.2 of 1973; Idem, Executive Order 11727, Drug law enforcement, 6 July 1973.23 National Archives and Records Administration (Maryland): Record of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Legislative File, 1969-1979, Box 1 (170-86-0161): Office of Chief Counsel, 'Interrelationship Between the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the Bureau of Customs Regarding Narcotics and dangerous Drug Traffic', 17 July 1969, pp.2–4.24 Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, p.15.25 Ibid, p.16.26 John B. Brown, III and Joseph B. Long, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center: A National Resources for Local Agencies', Sheriff 52/1 (2000), p.20.27 Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, p.18.28 Department of Justice, A Secure Border: An Analysis of Issues Affecting The U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, 4 March 1974, p.89.29 Ibid.30 Ibid, p.90.31 Brown and Long, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center', p.19; Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, p.18.32 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Enforcement: Strong Guidance Needed, 18 December 1975, p.24; Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.4.33 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', pp.8–9; Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation and Inspections Division, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, June 2010, p.i.34 Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, p.31.35 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'Intelligence', (accessed 4 March 2015).36 Brown and Long, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center', p.20; General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, 13 June 1983, p.63.37 National Archives and Records Administration (Maryland) CIA, CREST: Statement of Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, before the Select Committee on Intelligence, United State Senate, July 14, 1982, p.5; General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, p.69; Pete Burton and Bill Childress, 'El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) ~ smuggling inter-agency surveillance', Customs Today 26/4 (1991), p.23; Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.2–3; Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, FY2012 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, pp.87, 89.38 Michelle Leonhart, Statement before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, 12 April 2013, p.5. Agencies officially represented at EPIC currently include: The DEA, Department of General Services, Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Custom Enforcement, the Coast Guard, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives, the Marshall service, the Department of Transportation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Interior, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, Joint Task Force-North, the Joint Interagency Task Force-South, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Air National Guard, National Guard Counter Narcotics Bureau, the Department of State, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Union Pacific Railroad Police, the Kansas City Southern Railroad Police, the El Paso Police Department, and the El Paso County Sherriff's Office. The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency are also represented at the Center. See: Government Accounting Office, Drug Control - An Overview of U.S. Counterdrug Intelligence Activities, NSIAD-98-142, June 1998, Appendix I: 2.7.39 Memoranda of understanding have no force of law and may be dormant in practice.40 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.i, 4, 9.41 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, p.65.42 Drug enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.17.43 Department of Homeland Security, 2014 National Network of Fusion Centers, Final Report, January 2015, p.41.44 Department of Justice, FY 2012 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.88; Drug Enforcement Administration, FY 2016 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.100.45 Santiago Ballina, 'The crime–terror continuum revisited: a model for the study of hybrid criminal organisations', Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism 6/2 (2011), pp.121–136.46 Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Intelligence Program Top-Down Review, pp.48, 50.47 Masse, O'Neil and Rollins, 'Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress', p.7; Editor, 'Hezbollah uses Mexican drug routes into U.S.', Washington Times, 27 March 2009; Louise I. Shelley and Sharon A. Melzer, 'The nexus of organized crime and terrorism: Two case-studies in cigarette smuggling', International Journal of Comparative and applied Criminal Justice 32/1 (2008), pp.43–63; Torin Monahan and Neal A. Palmer, 'The emerging politics of DHS fusion centers', Security Dialogue 40/6 (2009), p.621.48 Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Intelligence Program Top-Down Review, pp.10, 26.49 Department of Homeland Security, 'Top Story: El Paso Intelligence Center'.50 The term National Security Enterprise is used to describe the multiplicity of actors involved in US national security, including the three branches of government and the private sector. See George and Rishikof, 'The National Security Enterprise: Institutions, Cultures, and Politics', p.3.51 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'Intelligence'.52 Placido, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center: Beyond the Border'; Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, p.11; Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.25.53 Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, 2013, pp.7, 11; idem, National Drug Control Strategy, 2014, p.i.54 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.21.55 Department of Justice, Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration FY 2016 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.100.56 Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, FY2014 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.61.57 Brown and Long, 'The El Paso Intelligence Center', p.19.58 Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, 2013, p.12.59 Donald A. Schramek, Response Submitted to GAO on their Draft Report Entitled 'Strong Central Management and a More Definite Strategy Needed to Improve Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts', 3 February 1983, p.105; Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration: A tradition of Excellence, p.193; General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, p.115.60 Data are facts that are usually compiled into databases. Information is produced when databases are queried to answer specific questions.61 Department of Homeland Security, 'Top Story: El Paso Intelligence Center'.62 Department of Justice, FY2016 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.100.63 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, p.11.64 Jeff Stein, 'El Paso intel center error causes couple's arrest at gunpoint', Washington Post, 7 September 2010.65 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.10.66 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, p.viii; Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration FY 2016 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.14; Government Accounting Office, Drug Control, Appendix I:2.2.67 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, p.viii.68 Ibid, p.iii.69 Ibid, pp.iii–iv; General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, pp.57–58, 64.70 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.ii–viii, 49–50.71 Walsh, Intelligence and Intelligence Analysis, p.149.72 Taylor and Russell, 'The failure of police 'fusion' centers and the concept of a national intelligence sharing plan', p.184; Carter and Carter, 'The intelligence fusion process for state, local, and tribal law enforcement', p.1334.73 Editor, 'Drug Smuggling Story Stirs Feud', Los Angeles Times, 7 June 1975, A22.74 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Enforcement, p.25; US Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, United States Efforts to Halt Heroin Importation: Eradication and Enforcement in Mexico Southwest Broder Control, 10 February and 19 April 1978, p.308.75 Ibid, pp.i–ii, 23, 31.76 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, pp.57, 62–63, 66.77 Department of Justice, DEA Intelligence Program Top-Down Review, p.8; Idem, Drug Enforcement Administration, FY 2015 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.66.78 Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Intelligence Program Top-Down Review, p.49.79 See: Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, p.vi.80 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.iv–v, 44.81 Michael Isikoff, 'Justice Reveals Plans for Drug Data Center; Facility Designed to Fill Intelligence 'Gap'', Washington Post, 8 June 1990, A21; Molly Moore, John Ward Anderson, 'U.S.-Mexican Drug Collaboration Fails When Lives Are on the Line', Washington Post, 5 November 1997, A1.82 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.ii–viii, 49–50.83 Taylor and Russell, 'Failure of Police Fusion Centers and the Concept of National Intelligence Sharing Plan', pp.194–195.84 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, p.67; Isikoff, 'Justice Reveals Plans For Drug Data Center', A21; Idem, 'Drug Center Arrives in Pork Barrel', Washington Post, 29 October 1990, A13.85 Department of Justice, DEA Intelligence Program Top-Down Review: a partnership to build a premier intelligence program, 2004, pp.45–7.86 Department of Justice, Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, pp.vii, 30–31; US Senate, Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, p.11.87 Washington Office on Latin America, 'An Uneasy Coexistence: Security and Migration Along the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez Border', 20 December 2011, (accessed 15 February 2015); Sylvia Longmire, 'Texas Opening New Intelligence Center To Combat Border Crime', (accessed 31 August 2015).88 Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Southwest Border Counternarcotic Strategy, p.13.89 General Accounting Office, Federal Drug Interdiction Efforts Need strong Central Oversight, p.115.90 Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', pp.25–6.91 White House, National Security Strategy, February 2015, p.10; Office of the Director of National Intelligence, The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America, 2014, p.8; Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy, 2014, pp.i, 36–38.92 Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Drug Control Strategy, Performance Reporting System Report, 2014, pp.7, 21, 30.93 Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration FY 2016 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, p.100; Drug Enforcement Administration, 'DEA Museum Lecture Series', p.16.94 Bjelopera and Finklea, 'Domestic Federal Law Enforcement Coordination', p.29.95 US Senate, Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, pp.1–4.96 On the difference between change and adaptation: Amy Zegart, 'September 11 and the Adaptation Failure of U.S. Intelligence Agencies', International Security 29/4 (2005), p.82.
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