The Trump administration reportedly is shutting down a Department of Justice task force that has focused on dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels, and human trafficking rings.
Leaders of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces were given until Sept. 30 to shut down operations, Bloomberg reported.
The outlet said it obtained records showing a DOJ budget analyst last week emailed a counterpart at the department and said its fiscal 2026 budget would be "zeroed out" and the independent office dissolved.
The budget analyst's email also said the task force's fusion center in Virginia would close.
The records did not cite a reason for the decision to close the unit, which played a role in the capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The Bloomberg report came nearly two months after the head of the task force was fired.
Adam Cohen, who was the unit's director, in a social media post said he was ousted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney.
Cohen's firing came just 18 hours after Blanche released a memo that Cohen helped him draft that announced the task force would be playing a leading role in combating illegal immigration as part of an initiative dubbed Operation Take Back America.
The latest news came amid the Trump administration being focused on streamlining government and cutting waste, fraud and abuse.
Trump's 2026 budget plan would slash nondefense domestic spending by $163 billion while increasing expenditures on national security, according to statements released by the White House on Friday.
The administration recommended slashing the DOJ’s budget by nearly 8% to $33.2 billion, though cutting the unit's budget was not included in the White House proposal sent to Congress, Bloomberg reported.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces was established in 1982. The DOJ’s website says the task force has been the centerpiece of the attorney general’s strategy to combat transnational organized crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation by using a prosecutor-led, multiagency approach to enforcement.
According to the Government Accountability Office, the unit’s investigations and prosecutions have netted more than $2 billion in proceeds seized and forfeited from criminal networks the past two fiscal years, Bloomberg reported.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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