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Former OCDETF director warns dismantling task force weakens U.S. counterdrug efforts
Summary
Thomas Patton, a former acting director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, told a House subcommittee that eliminating OCDETF diminished U.S. capacity to investigate transnational cartels, seizing critical evidence and prosecutorial pathways that maritime strikes may destroy.
At a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, former OCDETF acting director Thomas Patton testified that dismantling the interagency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces reduced national capacity to pursue transnational drug networks. Patton said OCDETF historically coordinated multiagency investigations, produced extensive seizures and prosecutor-ready evidence, and that losing that capability makes it harder to reach high-level traffickers.
"Sinking those boats has no effect on The US drug supply," Patton testified,…
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