(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration is “decommissioning” a Department of Justice unit that has long been at the center of dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels and human trafficking rings.
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Leaders of the unit, called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, or OCDETF, were told they had until Sept. 30 to shut down operations, people familiar with the matter said. The people asked not to be identified, citing concerns over potential retribution.
An email sent last Monday by a DOJ budget analyst to a counterpart at OCDETF said that the unit’s fiscal year 2026 budget would be “zeroed out” and the independent office dissolved, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and the people familiar with the matter.
A reason wasn’t specified in the documents and it’s unclear who was responsible for making the decision. In response to questions, a DOJ official provided a one-sentence statement: “This Department of Justice will continue our law enforcement efforts against transnational criminal organizations in order to make America safe again.”
The news comes as the Trump administration is issuing broad cuts across the entire federal government, with many departments from the Environmental Protection Agency to Housing and Urban Development seeing their budgets dramatically reduced. On Friday, the White House released the administration’s budget request for 2026. It proposed cuts across the federal government totaling $163 billion.
The DOJ is one agency facing steep cuts. The administration recommended slashing its budget by nearly 8% to $33.2 billion, including eliminating $1 billion in grants to some programs the White House called “woke” and “radical.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms would see a combined $1 billion in cuts. Draining OCDETF’s budget was not included in the White House proposal sent to Congress.
Over the past two fiscal years, the unit’s investigations and prosecutions have netted more than $2 billion in proceeds seized and forfeited from criminal networks, according to the Government Accountability Office. But its 2025 budget was just $550 million, a $17 million increase over 2024.
Established in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, the unit’s task forces are made up of hundreds of prosecutors and thousands of intelligence and law enforcement personnel from across the federal government. They work jointly on investigations that seek to combat illicit finance and take down international drug trafficking organizations. The task forces played a role in the 2019 capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The program’s crown jewel is its sprawling fusion center located in Virginia. The multimillion dollar classified facility houses reams of intelligence and financial data that investigators and prosecutors use to build mosaics on individuals and criminal networks they’ve targeted. The DOJ budget analyst’s April 28 email said the fusion center would be closed. Between it and the task forces’ main office, the operation employs about 40 people whose jobs are now in jeopardy.
Staff members had been bracing for some cuts. A few weeks earlier, officials including Thomas Padden, the task forces’ acting director had been told by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget that OCDETF’s spending for 2026 would be cut by more than half. In early April, OCDETF was given an opportunity to appeal the decision, which it did, according to emails and people familiar with the matter.
The decision to unwind the unit completely came as a shock to the prosecutors, agents and staff who work for the task forces, the people familiar with the matter said. There are thousands of active investigations, and it is unclear whether those probes will be shut down or handed over to other agencies.
The dissolution appears to be at odds with a policy goal that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche distributed widely inside the department just two months ago. He said then that OCDETF would be central to Trump’s policy of ensuring the “total elimination” of cartels and criminal organizations as part of a new initiative called Operation Take Back America.
“Operation Take Back America requires that OCDETF surge existing resources to address the Justice Department’s core enforcement priorities: stopping illegal immigration, eliminating Cartels and TCOs, and ending illegal trafficking of dangerous drugs and human beings,” Blanche wrote in a March 6 memo sent to all DOJ divisions.
It’s unclear whether other agencies would or could replace the unit. In January, Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi to set up task forces in every state to take down criminal networks — work that’s similar to OCDETF’s mandate.
The day after receiving news that his office would be shut down, Padden, the acting director of OCDETF, emailed Jolene Ann Lauria, the assistant attorney general for administration and DOJ’s chief financial officer, to discuss next steps.
“I’m writing to follow up on our conversation last Friday regarding setting a meeting with your staff and mine to discuss the process for closing down OCDETF functions in the wake of zeroing our budget for FY2026,” Padden wrote in the email, under the subject line “OCDETF de-commissioning.” “I’d like to get guidance as soon as possible regarding the options for our employees and the vision for either the termination or transfer of OCDETF functions and responsibilities.”
“Thank you – I will follow up as soon as possible,” Lauria replied.
Thus far, neither Padden nor any other official with the unit has received additional information from DOJ headquarters, three people familiar with the matter said.
In the meantime, OCDETF is preparing to cancel building leases, shut down its information systems and terminate contracts, people familiar with the matter said.
(Updates with comment from Department of Justice official in fourth paragraph)
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