FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Good evening, it is an honor to be here tonight to address the Hispanic American Police Commanders Association. I am especially pleased to be here in my new role as Treasury's Under Secretary for Enforcement. It is especially appropriate that my first speech as Under Secretary is before HAPCOA because I believe that Hispanic law enforcement has played a unique and pivotal role over the course of my career. When I was thinking about what I wanted to say tonight two experiences kept coming to the forefront of my mind. I would like to share both of those stories with you tonight.

I was fortunate enough to land at the Department of Justice as a prosecutor upon my graduation from law school. There was an acute shortage of lawyers, judges, and other law enforcement personnel in the city of Miami due to a high volume of narcotics cases that were being processed through the system there at the time. It was during this climate that the Justice Department assigned me to Miami as a young prosecutor. I had only been on the job for a few weeks when a young Hispanic ATF agent came to see me. He was involved in an undercover operation at the time involving the sale of drugs for guns. As many of you in this room know, there are specific legal requirements that must be in place before an undercover operation can proceed. The agent and I discussed different ways of structuring the undercover investigation that he was embarking on to ensure that it was within the scope of the law. Time went on and I slowly lost track of the ATF agent and his investigation. Some time later I was transferred out of Miami and shortly upon entering my new post heard a tragic story about a young Hispanic ATF agent. The agent had been working undercover when the operation somehow went awry and the cartel discovered his true identity. I was deeply saddened to learn that the agent murdered by the drug cartel was the same young Hispanic agent I had worked with when I was in Miami. It is fitting that today ATF headquarters in Washington is housed in a building named in honor of that young Hispanic agent who lost his life in the line of duty -- Agent Ariel Rios.

This incident was a turning point for me as a prosecutor in that it caused me to appreciate first hand the daily sacrifices involved with being a law enforcement officer. As my career progressed I worked with several different law enforcement agents -- the sacrifice that Agent Rios made in the war against drugs and violence was never far from my mind in my dealings with them. As most of you know, in my new role as Under Secretary for Enforcement I am tasked with providing policy guidance and oversight to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms among the other Treasury law enforcement components. It is a special privilege for me to be able to do that given the respect and gratitude I feel for federal agents like Ariel Rios who have made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and his community. It is my goal as Under Secretary to convey to our law enforcement agents around the country that their sacrifices are appreciated and valued by both the United States government and the citizens of this country.

The second experience took place when I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles during the mid-eighties. One of my prosecutor colleagues and a DEA agent came to talk to me about

a case involving the torture-murder of a DEA agent. During the three hours that we spent together I heard the details of the agent's story - about how he was about to be transferred from Guadalajara to San Diego when he was killed. About how he was en route to meet his wife for lunch to discuss the details of the move when he was kidnapped in broad daylight by members of one of the drug cartels and local police officers. This meeting was just the beginning of my involvement with the DEA agent's case. Little did I know that my involvement with his case would become life changing for me. I invested three years of my legal career in that investigation and ultimately was the lead trial attorney in the first murder trial which resulted in the conviction of the three defendants for the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique ("Kiki) Camarena. For the second time in my career, I was faced with a Hispanic federal law enforcement agent who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and the safety of its citizens.

Now that you all know a little bit more about me and my previous interactions with Hispanic law enforcement agents, you can understand what an honor it is for me to be able to be with you all tonight.

I do want to talk a little bit about the role of Under Secretary for Enforcement at the Treasury Department and outline what I hope to accomplish during my tenure there. First, I need to begin by saying that I am grateful to President Bush and Secretary O'Neill for the opportunity to serve at the Treasury Department as Under Secretary for Enforcement. As I mentioned earlier, I have the privilege of overseeing Treasury's law enforcement bureaus and offices -- the U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In addition, my office provides policy guidance to Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. Together, these bureaus and offices have both enforcement and regulatory missions, employ over 33,000 people, and have a budget in excess of $4 billion.

The breadth of their jurisdictions is equally impressive. Treasury law enforcement protects our borders and our President. We enforce U.S. sanctions and the tax laws. We combat money laundering and reduce gun violence.

With its unique border search authority, Customs investigates a wide range of crimes, including trafficking in drugs, child pornography, and weapons of mass destruction, customs frauds, and money laundering. Customs has also established the Cyber Smuggling Center to protect our electronic border. At the Cyber Smuggling Center, Customs brings together all of its assets dedicated to the investigation of international crime conducted on or facilitated by the Internet.

The Secret Service's mission extends far beyond protecting our leaders. They continue to pursue their original mission -- combating counterfeit currency. They also investigate credit card and access device fraud as well as identity theft. In addition, the Secret Service, working with other federal, state and local agencies, is planning the security for the upcoming IMF/World Bank meeting to be held in October 2001 in Washington, D.C. and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Treasury is also home to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). ATF's top priority is protecting our communities from violent crime. In addition to its firearms enforcement efforts, ATF also has expertise in bombings and arsons. ATF's four National Response Teams (NRT) are the only national teams that respond to explosives and arson incidents. ATF has made significant contributions to the investigation of the bombings at the Atlanta Olympics, Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building, and New York's World Trade Center.

The Treasury law enforcement bureau this audience may be most familiar with is the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Many of you have spent time at FLETC's facilities. In fact, FLETC trains more than 20,000 students a year from more than 70 federal participating organizations. In addition, in response to growing concerns about international crime, FLETC has entered into an arrangement with the State Department to provide specialized training for foreign law enforcement agencies, and conducts training at the International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) in Budapest, Hungary, and Bangkok, Thailand.

As the guardian of the nation's financial system, one of Treasury's top law enforcement priorities is preventing and detecting money laundering. FinCEN aids in this fight against money laundering with regulatory, enforcement, and international initiatives.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control is responsible for implementing sanctions against nations determined to be a threat to the national security, economy or foreign policy of the United States, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), including sanctions aimed at terrorists and narcotics kingpins.

Although the Treasury bureaus have a broad law enforcement mission, I plan to focus my efforts on three areas in particular: enhancing counter-money laundering efforts, improving cooperation with Mexico, and maintaining public trust.

Law enforcement faces enormous challenges in its efforts to combat money laundering. Money laundering is often committed by professionals such as lawyers, bankers, and accountants, who develop ingenious schemes to conceal the movement of criminal proceeds and create the appearance that they are derived from legitimate sources. Complicating matters is the fact that increasingly money laundering is a problem of global concern. Criminals target foreign jurisdictions with liberal bank secrecy laws and weak anti-money laundering regulatory regimes as they transfer illicit funds through domestic and international financial institutions often with the speed and ease of faceless Internet transactions. The international nature of money laundering requires international law enforcement cooperation to successfully investigate and prosecute those that instigate these complex criminal schemes.

To respond to the money laundering threat, the Treasury Department is statutorily required to develop, in cooperation with other agencies, an annual National Money Laundering Strategy. In keeping with the Administration's policies, this year's Strategy will respond to the challenges of anti-money laundering enforcement by providing a comprehensive plan to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises and prosecute professional money launderers through aggressive enforcement, measured accountability, preventative efforts, and enhanced coordination. We are currently in the process of putting the final touches on the Strategy, and we expect to release it in September.

I believe that it is critical to focus law enforcement's efforts on the prosecution of major money laundering organizations and systems. Federal efforts must be allocated where they can do the most good -- in high-risk areas -- and target major money laundering systems. Moreover, effective money laundering enforcement requires us to use all available statutory authorities. Prosecuting money launderers and other criminals is not enough. We must strip criminals of their ill-gotten gains and dismantle criminal organizations by attacking their financial base through aggressive, appropriate use of forfeiture.

Focusing our domestic attack, however, will not -- on its own -- be enough. Drug traffickers and other criminal organizations will continue to search for the path of least resistance to launder their money. Thus, no country's individual efforts -- whether in the legal, regulatory, or law enforcement arena -- will be sufficient given the relative ease with which money flows across borders.

In this regard, important strides have been made through multilateral initiatives. Chief among those has been the work of the Financial Action Task Force, or "FATF", an independent international body with twenty-nine member countries. When FATF listed fifteen jurisdictions as non-cooperative in the fight against money laundering in June 2000, it marked a milestone in our international effort. The FATF listing focused attention on the issue and for many of those named countries, it turned their attention into productive actions to address the deficiencies that the FATF identified.

As we work at home and abroad to enhance our counter-money laundering efforts, we must be able to measure the effectiveness of those efforts so that we can be fully accountable to the American people. Our focus must be on results not merely enforcement activities. We have to do better, and we will do better, in measuring the results of our anti-money laundering activity.

An important international partner in our efforts to combat money laundering as well as its predicate crimes will be the Government of Mexico. Indeed, I agree with the Attorney General's assessment that we have no more important law enforcement relationship than our relationship with Mexico. The importance of this relationship is reflected in President Bush's decision to have President Fox be the guest of honor at his first state dinner in September.

I believe that we have a unique opportunity to improve our relationship with Mexican law enforcement, providing a real benefit to the American public. Close cooperation with Mexico will enable us to better attack drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes. As a Hispanic of Mexican descent, I am personally very passionate about the possibility of making communities on both sides of the border safer through ongoing cooperation and open dialogue.

One area where we have recently made progress is in fighting gun violence. For some time, Mexico has expressed concern about the illegal trafficking of firearms into Mexico from the United States. Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is a priority for both governments.

During his recent visit to Mexico, Attorney General Ashcroft announced a program to work with our Mexican partners to combat the problem of illegal firearms trafficking into Mexico. As the Attorney General noted at the time, ATF will play a critical role in this effort. Specifically, we have agreed that when guns of suspected U.S. origin are seized in Mexico, the Mexican authorities will provide the technical information concerning the gun - make, model, serial number - to ATF. ATF then will work to trace the weapon, and provide timely feedback to Mexican authorities. U.S. and Mexican agents will then work closely together to fully support any resulting investigations. ATF and Customs are currently executing an initial "pulse and surge" operation - Operation Windfall - to test the concept.

Importantly, Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Macedo de la Concha have committed to dedicate the prosecutors needed to pursue any resulting cases and bring them to successful conclusion. We will continue to work with our colleagues at the Department of Justice as well as our Mexican partners to address this issue.

Finally, I want to close my remarks today by expressing my concern over the decreasing level of trust the public expresses for law enforcement. When I was a prosecutor in Los Angeles several years ago, if you put a law enforcement officer on the witness stand he was cloaked with the presumption of truth. Today, sadly, in many communities this is no longer the case. Allegations of mismanagement at a leading law enforcement agency, charges of state and local police departments engaging in racial profiling, and the excessive use of force by some law enforcement personnel has shaken the public's confidence and trust in law enforcement. Unfortunately the actions of a few have tainted the reputation of good, honest and hard working law enforcement officers who are dedicated to their work.

Without the confidence of the communities we serve, we cannot effectively do our jobs. As Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, my highest priority is maintaining and strengthening our relationship with the American people. But more than that, my goal is for Treasury agencies to serve as an example for all of law enforcement.

I believe that the Customs Service's response to public concerns regarding its personal search procedures is a useful example. When allegations were made that some Customs Service officers were selecting passengers for personal search based on race or gender, the Customs Service responded quickly and appropriately. By doing so, Customs was able to take control of the issue and turn it into an opportunity for the Customs Service to do its mission even more effectively. Just as importantly, its quick response ensured that the Customs Service retained the confidence of the traveling public.

The results have been impressive. The Customs Service is searching fewer people and seizing more drugs. The statistics indicate that Customs is searching fewer innocent travelers of all races and genders, while doing a better job of catching those carrying contraband. As Under Secretary, I am committed to ensuring that Treasury law enforcement continues to be responsive to the American public.

There are approximately 740,000 sworn law enforcement officers currently serving in the United States. Every day you courageously serve and protect the safety and welfare of all Americans.

You are motivated by your own personal sense of good will and responsibility and not by a desire for praise, recognition, or glory.

Oftentimes the general public is unaware of the enormous risks that you take every day. Since the first recorded police death in 1794, there have been more than 15,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in the United States.

In the past 10 years alone, over 1,500 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty. These fallen officers leave behind wives, children, other family members, and friends as a result of their dedication to law enforcement and to the public they serve.

As I serve at the Department of the Treasury as the Under Secretary of Enforcement I aim to honor the memories of officers like "Kiki" and Ariel not just on occasions such as today, but every day. I will never forget these officers who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives in service to the people of this great Nation.

I want to thank all of you here tonight and HOPCOA for inviting me to speak to you tonight, I am truly honored. I know that all of you here today make tremendous sacrifices, at times you may feel under appreciated and I want to leave with this, "Thank you". "Gracias" for making our communities safer places to live. You are all American heroes and Secretary O'Neill joins me in thanking you for all that you do in service of your community and your country. The President of the United States, George W. Bush is also well aware of the sacrifices and responsibilities that you and your families take on. Please know that you are in their thoughts and prayers and on their behalf I'd like to thank you. Muchisimas gracias. Que dios te bendiga. May God Bless You.