*******MEDIA ADVISORY*******
ATTORNEY GENERAL AND OTHER SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
TO ADDRESS THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE FOR THE ORGANIZED CRIME DRUG ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCES AND ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM

Attorney General To Highlight Accomplishments In The Fight Against Illegal Drugs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft will deliver the keynote address on Tuesday, July 20, 2004, at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 National Leadership Conference of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program. This year’s conference is sponsored in partnership with the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Asset Forfeiture Program and to highlight OCDETF’s commitment to attacking the financial side of the drug trade. Nearly 700 Special Agents in Charge, United States Attorneys and other federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors will be attendance.

Today, OCDETF combines more than 3,000 agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard, together with prosecutors from the 94 United States Attorneys’ offices nationwide and the Criminal and Tax Divisions of the Department of Justice, with support from more than 50,000 state and local law enforcement officers from across the country.

In 2002, Attorney General Ashcroft announced a comprehensive strategy designed to reduce the supply of illegal drugs, by systematically disrupting and dismantling those organizations primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply and by seizing the profits that permit these organizations continually to operate. OCDETF is the centerpiece of that strategy. The Attorney General will announce the dismantlement of eight of the “most wanted” drug trafficking organizations, identified on the Consolidated Priority Organization Target List, as well as the severe disruption of several major cocaine and ecstasy trafficking organizations. He will also explain the impact OCDETF investigations have had on the decline in availability of LSD and the reduction in pseudoephedrine trafficking along the Canadian border.

WHO: Attorney General John Ashcroft
Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey
Under Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Asa Hutchinson
Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, Samuel Bodman

WHAT: Keynote remarks at OCDETF conference opening ceremonies (Only the opening ceremonies are open press, the rest of the conference is closed to the press)

WHEN: Tuesday, July 20th, 8:45 A.M. E.D.T.
Media arrival BY 8:00 A.M. due to extra security measures

WHERE:Regency Ballroom
The Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008

NOTE: Media should enter West entrance on Calvert St. ALL media MUST PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED PHOTO ID (such as driver’s license) as well as VALID MEDIA CREDENTIALS. Press inquiries regarding logistics should be directed to Michael Kulstad at (202) 514-2007.

###

04-484