DEA and local police

[BlackEagle]

Re: DEA and local police

 

One problem I see on either end, DEA or local LE, is the potential of having a baught off agent or cop involved in the bust. With advance warning, the cartels will have far larger fire power. Not to mention the advantage of home field so to speak.

[BlackEagle]

Re: DEA and local police

 

PS in Real life the DEA uses all kinds of resorces and scenerios to train by. That includes everything from urban scenerios to jungle and desert raids. ALL of wich are operated under the cover of darkness.

[Bolon]

Re: DEA and local police

 

And every one of those scenarios have a "by the book" version to solve and therefore can end up in predictability. Predictability ends up in carelessness and deaths. Read the work of Richard Marcinko and you will understand why the SEALs avoid such. Watch Flashpoint where the SWAT team adjusts and doesn't know the scenario until it is time and they start the operation. That is how you plug leaks by keeping it secret until it is time and they train for everything too.

[BlackEagle]

Re: DEA and local police

 

Good point Bolon. 20 years ago when I was with the local military explorer scouts we traind with the DEA. The big thing for them was they Love using flash bangs. stun and enter in scertain scenerios. But your right about the by the book training. Thats one reason we were there to give them non by the book responses. One thing about the DEA they are very closed lipped and will never talk about their training with non LE. I considerd myself lucky to be a part of their training.

[Vondy]

Re: DEA and local police

 

I am playing Shadows of the City and one of the character, a local police detective in hudson city, decided to ask his dept for firepower help in busting a big drug cargo in the docks.

Considering I live in anotehr country () all this local/federal/national overlapping of duties is making my head spin.

Armed vigilantes using non conventional weaponry are wiping out the major drug dealers in the city. On top of my mind I guess ATF (for the weaponry), DEA (for drugs) and local police powers could be involved.

I have seen some action movies myself but I wonder - would the local police actually ASK DEA for help in the drug bust or they would prefer to keep it for their own and use their resources? Considering they know they have weird weaponry, would they call ATF as well? How many agents would participate in the action?

I have look far and wide but I can't find detailed modus operandi when things like this happen. Also would Police use SWAT teams?

 

Its not a drug investigation; its a violent crime (murder) investigation that involves drugs. Federal violent crime statues belong to the FBI. The DEA runs narcotics task-forces, not "chase down violent vigilantes whacking our targets" investigations. And weird weapons could be considered "national security," which is also - primarily - the FBI.

 

Based on the situation you describe: the FBI would likely head up a joint task-force with elements from other federal, state, and local agencies. I would expect the task force to include FBI, DEA, BATFE, and local police. It may also include some ICE personnel if the drugs are being brought in from foreign lands. The reason the FBI would probably take the lead is multifaceted: one) they simply have the most resources, two) they have the feds violent crime portfolio (as well as responsibility for the largest number of federal statures), three) they already have violent crime task forces in place, four) the FBI organized crime bureau is also heavily involved in drug trafficking intelligence - even though the DEA has primary enforcement responsibility.

 

Also, there is a precedent for the FBI taking the lead when violent crime task-forces are created. Again, its a question of size and resources and portfolio. The US Marshall's Service has the broadest authority, and do run fugitive task forces around the country, but this isn't really their portfolio - unless, of course, the vigilantes get to (or take out) a federally protected witness. That is the Marshall's portfolio (and that information is Top Secret and compartmentalized, to boot).

 

The size of the task force would depend on how high profile, and how widely spread in terms of jurisdiction, the vigilante murders are happening in. From the outset (say 2-3 murders in) you'd probably have 4-5 FBI agents with 1-2 people from each of the the other agencies (maybe 10 total). If its in one big city, I would expect a combination of robbery-homicide and narcotics detectives (let's assume 6-12) from the start. If its several cities, you may also have county and state police adding manpower. The local FBI field office SWAT team, as well as municipal SWAT, could be available for backup as well. As for jurisdiction, they overlap and its possible there could be concurrent and competing investigations - and not just with local and federal tensions, but internal federal tensions. While FBI and DEA are both justice department and directly under the attorney general, ICE and BATFE are Homeland Security.

 

Nonetheless, such tensions are usu. good fiction rather than reality. Some very big local departments have had jurisdictional brawls with the Feds, but a more likely scenario is an agreement to cooperate and share the media glory. If there are local and federal tensions, contrary to popular media, the dual sovereignty principal functions on a first come first serve basis. Legally, the FBI can't just walk in and say: "this is our investigation now, get lost" unless they are willing to extort the local police in the process (threatening federal law enforcement grants, etc). And that won't happen willy nilly. It would have to be a major case and extremely political for them to bother.

[kahuna's bro]

very interesting