DOJ to Devote Major Resources to Eliminating Cartels
Shortly after receiving her confirmation and swearing into office, the new Attorney General Pam Bondi issued 14 memorandums to all Justice Department (“DOJ”) employees outlining the various priorities and directives of the new administration. Amongst them were memoranda that outlined general investigative and charging priorities/procedures and another calling for the outright total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations utilizing the department’s resources. Reflecting President Trump’s directive to pursue the “total elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs),” those memos taken in tandem outline the priorities and procedures that the various divisions within the DOJ should follow to achieve that goal. Acknowledging that such a lofty goal, “will require additional resources and thoughtful charging decisions by federal prosecutors” the memo outlines various charging/enforcement decisions to be taken by prosecutors. In keeping with the directive for prosecutors to “pursu[e] the most serious, readily provable offense” against leaders and managers of the Cartels and TCOs, the charges pursued “will typically include capital crimes, terrorism charges, racketeering charges, Continuing Criminal Enterprise offenses[;]” otherwise known as some of the most serious criminal charges carrying the harshest punishments at the federal level. Conversely, low-level targets of the organizations without immigration status in the United States will not generally be criminally prosecuted at the federal level, opting instead to prioritize civil removal procedures in those cases, as well directing the DOJ not to pursue extradition for “safety-valve” eligible participants or those who would qualify for minor role adjustments under the federal sentencing guidelines if criminally convicted.
Moreover, the DOJ will also eliminate some bureaucratic steps of review for charging and prosecuting the most serious crimes outlined against these cartels and TCOs, including terrorist, capital, and racketeering charges among others for an initial 90-day trial basis. In addition, the memos single out various cartels, namely the, “Tren de Aragua (TdA), La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel” with instructions to craft proposed standardized language for use by federal prosecutors, a signal of the desire for increased focus on these organization in the immediate future. This is made even clearer under the directive to revamp the “Joint Task Force Vulcan, an initiative launched in 2019 to destroy MS-13…[and] its mission is expanded to target TdA” and directing more resources to the task force. The Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Sections will similarly prioritize investigations, prosecutions, asset forfeitures targeting cartels and TCOs and the DOJ’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit is directed to, “shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve” the criminal operations of cartels and TCOs such as bribes that facilitate human trafficking, drugs and/or firearms. In other words, the memo makes clear that the DOJ will be targeting the individuals for criminal prosecution while also actively trying to disrupt cartels and TCOs money making operations through increased charges and asset forfeitures against them and their individual members. Expect a flurry of litigation in the near future under the new directives against cartel and TCO defendants, particularly those who are considered to be leaders/managers by the DOJ.
New Policy Seeks Increase in Death Penalty Prosecutions
At the end of Biden’s presidency, he commuted the death penalty component of sentences for 37 of the 40 individuals saddled with a federal death sentence and had previously issued a memo announcing a moratorium on federal death penalty executions, which the new administration is lifting immediately. The memo outlines specific instances that “absent significant mitigating circumstances” prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty in cases that, “involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer and capital crimes committed by aliens who are present in the United States.” In keeping with the focus on cartels and TCOs, and to aid in the effort to combat “drug trafficking and the violence it brings” prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty against capital eligible crimes typically associated with those groups. The new administration will also be revisiting decisions from the prior administration not to pursue capital eligible crimes with a focus on the those who fit the aforementioned categories of focus for the death penalty. Of note, in an effort to restore the death sentences for the 37 individuals on federal death row that had their death penalty portion of their sentence commuted by former-President Biden, prosecutors are directed to work with local prosecutors in states where the death sentence is available under state law on those federally commuted individuals. This would effectively undue the commutated death penalty portion of their sentences should local prosecutors elect to bring capital charges where available. Such a directive surrounding the death penalty is in stark contrast to the previous administration and could have immediate impacts on defendants who may not yet have gone to trial and who previously believed that they were not subject to a potential death sentence.
