 attention please. Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention please. Secretary Donovan, Senator Thurman, Mr. McClory, Mr. Kindness, Admiral Murphy, honored participants on the dais from the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Treasury, distinguished guests in the audience from the administration, the Congress, the federal state and local law enforcement community, fellow members of the Department of Justice, and friends. It is my great privilege and honor this morning to welcome you to the great hall of the Department of Justice for this historic event, and to introduce to you your host, ladies and gentlemen, the distinguished Attorney General of the United States, the Honorable William French Smith. Thank you very much and good morning. We're particularly delighted this morning to have with us Chairman Thurman of the House Judiciary Committee and also Congressman McClory and Congressman Kindness. Unfortunately, Chairman Rodino of the House Judiciary Committee could not be with us because of a scheduling conflict, and that is also true with respect to Senator Biden, who also had hope to be here. I'd like to welcome to our United States attorneys who are here representing all of the major cities of the United States. Man originally formed government to protect himself against invaders from without and predators from within. America itself has always demonstrated the resolve and ability to protect itself against threats from without. In recent decades, however, American government has not succeeded in protecting its citizens against predators from within. In recent years, this nation has been plagued by an outbreak of crime unparalleled in our history and unequaled in any other free society. The perniciousness of crime in America has been fostered of late by two interrelated developments. Crime has become increasingly organized and sophisticated, and organized crime has become especially lucrative because of the enormous market for illicit drugs. Drugs and organized crime have combined to wreak havoc on our community and on our lives. The combination of drug trafficking and organized crime represents the most serious crime problem facing the country today. Directly or indirectly, it threatens each person and institution in this country. It threatens the fabric of society and the gown of public integrity. As you may know, I have directed every United States attorney to set up a law enforcement coordinating committee to assess the differing crime problems in each district throughout the nation and to bring to bear a coordinated federal, state, and local effort against the kinds of crime that are of greatest concern in different areas. Despite local variations, every law enforcement coordinating committee, except one, has identified drugs as the chief crime problem in its area. In 1980, illicit retail drug sales were estimated to total more than $79 billion, an increase of about 50% since 1977. To give you a little perspective, in 1980, illicit drug sales were about equal to the combined profits of America's 500 largest industrial corporations. It is, however, organized crime that reaps the overwhelming bulk of these profits and more because drugs are just one of the businesses of organized crime and no taxes are paid on these enormous sums. On a human level, the drug problem caused by organized crime is even more staggering. Drugs victimize not only addicts, but also those whom addicts assault, rob, and burglarize to obtain the large sums of money they need to feed their drug habit. There's no doubt that drug trafficking spawns an unbelievable amount of related crime. One recent study demonstrated that over an 11-year period, some 243 addicts committed about 1.5 million crimes, an average of 2,000 crimes each or a crime every other day, just to support their habits. In fact, half of all jail and prison inmates regularly use drugs before committing their offenses. According to a very recent RAND study, addicted offenders in my home state, California, for example, committed nearly nine times as many property crimes each year than did non-addicted offenders. The drug trafficking that creates these other crimes is itself organized crime. Large-scale drug dealers must organize their operations. They obtain the illicit substances or the rights to the substances overseas. In many cases, they make payoffs to foreign officials so that their foreign operations divisions run smoothly. They arrange for the processing of the drugs overseas, the making of poppy into heroin, the making of cocoa into cocaine, and they develop operations to smuggle this product into the country. Within our borders, the drug dealers have set up elaborate enterprises for cutting the pure imported drugs and distributing them over wide geographical areas. And the organization does not stop there. Drug money is laundered through legitimate businesses set up as fronts for drug dealers. The profits are then plowed back into the drug business, just like a legitimate major enterprise. Increasingly, some of the profits are actually invested in legitimate businesses, including real estate in Florida, restaurants in California, and other businesses across the nation. The popular notion that the syndicate, or traditional organized crime, stays out of drugs is simply not true. Many of the syndicate's families have developed elaborate drug trafficking networks. Virtually every one of them is involved in drug trafficking in one way or another. But the problem of organized crime today is by no means limited to its traditional form. In the past two decades, we have witnessed the emergence of new organized criminal enterprises dealing in drugs and the other rackets traditionally controlled by the syndicate. These emerging groups have entered the drug business, often in competition with traditional organized crime. There are three distinct categories of emerging or non-traditional organized crime. First, outlaw motorcycle gangs. Second, prison gangs. And third, other organized crime groups. Over the past decade, some 800 outlaw motorcycle gangs have developed around the country and in foreign countries. There are, however, four principal gangs that together nearly cover the United States, the Hells Angels, the Outlaws, the Pagans, and the Banditos. These gangs are as highly structured as traditional organized crime families. They have accumulated substantial wealth through a wide range of organized criminal activities, but their primary source of revenue is drug trafficking. The second non-traditional organized criminal group is the prison gangs, which were first established as a result of associations developed in the California State Prison System over the past 20 years. Today, they operate both inside and outside prison. They remain predominantly a West Coast phenomenon, but there is evidence that they are spreading. Gangs of former inmates, like the motorcycle gangs, have a big four. La Nuestra Familia, the Mexican Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood, and the Black Guerrilla Family. There are also other emerging groups. There are Southeast Asian groups, the violent Colombian groups known as the Cocaine Cowboys and other drug cartels. All of these criminal organizations deal in drugs and use violence. They are secretive, self-perpetuating criminal societies involved in drugs and every other sort of criminal activity. Money is their common objective, and violence is their primary tactic. They control large-scale drug trafficking today, and they are the groups that must be broken if we are to control the drug problem in the future. The massive involvement of organized crime and drug trafficking is, however, only part of the problem. Organized groups of criminals assault and murder each other and innocent bystanders in the violent and lucrative world of drug trafficking. For example, in 1981, about 25 percent of all homicides in Dade County, Florida, resulted from the use of machine guns. Many of the victims were innocent people killed when drug gangs carried out assassinations in public places, such as crowded shopping center parking lots. Organized crime also engages in pornography, gambling, prostitution, extortion, loan sharking, fraud, and weapons trafficking. And last, we see public officials at all levels being corrupted by drug money. We have reports of rural sheriffs and police officers accepting payments of $50,000 or more just to look the other way while traffickers make a single landing at a makeshift airport. The dollar amounts involved are so great that bribery threatens the very foundation of law and law enforcement. At this point, I would like to introduce Judge Webster to give everyone a brief look at the kind of influence organized criminal enterprises dealing in drugs have upon government itself. Director Webster of the FBI. Thank you, General Smith, distinguished guests, and fellow members of the Department of Justice. We've known for a long time in our work against traditional organized crime families that the presence of corrupt public officials are absolutely necessary to the success of those enterprises, either as facilitators or to provide early warning systems. We find as we look closer into the criminal enterprises that the Attorney General has identified in narcotics trafficking that this is really true in spades. And it is succeeding largely because of the enormous amounts of cash that are available for this purpose. I'm going to list just a few of these to underscore the point. All of these occurred within the past 12 months. In Henry County, Georgia, through an undercover operation, we identified a conspiracy by the sheriff, the chief of police, the probate judge, and the manager of the airport to provide safe landing and escort service into Atlanta. Our undercover agent identified it on the basis of a return offer of $30,000 for this privilege. In June of this year, 10 officers of the Chicago Police Department were convicted of offenses involving payoffs from narcotics dealers. In Miami, starting in early 1975, an investigation identified several homicide detectives of Dade County Public Safety Department accepting bribes and aiding drug trafficking enterprises. And to date, six officers have been convicted along with 12 others. In Appling County, Georgia, 15 defendants, including the chief of police and a former sheriff, have been convicted on narcotics smuggling and official corruption charges. In St. Francis County, Missouri, the presiding circuit judge was convicted in federal court in St. Louis for conspiring to manufacture and distribute illegal drugs and is now serving a federal present sentence. Recently in Royan County, Tennessee, the sheriff was indicted for facilitating the transfer of a thousand dollars, a thousand pounds of marijuana. I wish I could tell you that it's confined to other offices, but we've had problems within agents of the DEA and the FBI and prosecutors in the Department of Justice. All of these things are being carefully and heavily investigated, and we expect indictments of the near future. To illustrate the kind of problems that this kind of ready availability of cash can do to a community, we've been made available to us from ABC, a program that aired on July 30th of this year on Nightline called The Business of Marijuana. I think you'll find it interesting and illuminating. Time for neighborly discussions and for the children, conservative religion, and is it from the canvas of Norman Rockwell, a little boy sneaking out of the house as they do in every other town. But as night falls, the story changes and something happens here you don't find in the average small town. Every late city joined the rest of the Florida coast and found the loopy marijuana business. Many of its brothers, fishermen, became pawnholders on loading Colombian players on moonless nights on the open seas, sneaking back to shore to the island and overgrown waterways. I should think that everyone would be aware of it. If you don't need wine, you'll never be able to sleep all night. Come on, I'll get you a little tan, then do it, because that's life around there. Your kid's motion doesn't matter. The reputation of one boy is for being a key figure anytime in the marijuana business. He is 70-year-old at Gaff Johnson. In 1978, every late city was rudely awakened to the marijuana business by Johnson's arrest for hauling pie. He got called to Smallwood for stuff holding. Were you framed? Not allowed. His arrest police say he tried to flee the authorities but ran aground on Royce Abed and nearby Chuckalusky Highland in front of the old Smallwood store. By using the landing site near the Smallwood store, the pot haulers symbolically brought the tap full circle right back in line with its always colorful sometimes-outlaw packs. When the store was built as an Indian training post, it attracted some pretty tough characters who didn't care at all for the law. So when the law told them not to shoot bloom birds nor the poach alligators, they did it anyway. And when prohibition hit, many of them made a killing by whisky and rum. But now the stories of the old rum runners have given way to those of the new pot haulers who have turned out to be some of the better-known people in town. In early 1981, William King, the son of the now retired chief law enforcer in Everglades City, was caught hauling 11,000 pounds of marijuana in a crowdhub. Accused with him was the vote on Richard Collins, Macbeth Johnson's son-in-law. Jim Landrum is an ex-Everglades City councilman who also was arrested last year on pot hauling charges after police were told several voters were picking up marijuana bills floating in the ocean. The charges were dropped though after Landrum said he was only on the boat doing mechanical work for the owner, also a board who was sent to prison. The old Tarleton town taken all in stride. Then look out, I thought that's what we are now, didn't put you out loud. Economically, the effect on the town is readily apparent to anyone who lived here just five years ago. Heavy gold jewelry has become a status symbol along with fast cars and trucks with dark windows. I probably would get shot from said but it don't say that church members some of my good friends around town but there's what if you want to look at it from strictly an economic standpoint of view, this is a better shape. The pot business in town has so opened the horrors even joked with the law enforcers. Yes, we have things that's about Is that? Oh yeah. What did I say? Um, well I got one bowing are uh too many firearms out? You must have missed one. While many in the remote area don't like the pot business and fear its moral effects, most of them believe the haulers are only doing what they have to do to make money and won't turn them into the law. They have a better know how they crowd, you know, to my adult. They were both scandal everybody here. You know, if you get that mad at you got half town, mad at you. That's just who it is. With most people reluctant to talk about others in the pot business we went to the man with the reputation, Macbeth Johnson himself. Johnson freely admits he was in the raw money business back during Corvisha but says his reputation for being in the pot business snims from his neighbor's jealousies. I had a little better bowing. I had a little better bowing. Coming out on that one. So they said you made your money in whiskey and then in the door. I've been a bad boy all my life. This is growing in the town except you quietly pray. This is my father or nightline in everybody sitting for. During the last 20 months we have recognized the full dimensions of the threat posed by organized crime and its involvement in drug trafficking. We have, however, been operating at a considerable disadvantage during the preceding four years the number of FBI and DEA agents actually declined by more than 900 about a 10% cut in our manpower. We crafted and implemented a series of initiatives to use our limited resources better in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. We reorganized the drug enforcement administration and for the first time the FBI has been brought into the fight against the number one crime problem to complement the excellent work done by DEA. Thereby we gain not only the FBI's resources but also its 20 years of experience in fighting organized crime. In the last year the FBI has begun more than 800 drug investigations including 200 joint investigations with the DEA. Indeed the FBI under Judge Webster has scored dramatic successes against organized crime. Working with the Justice Department's organized crime strike forces the Bureau has helped to indict and convict numerous high-level members of syndicate families including the top structure of organized crime families in some cities. The Attorney General's task force on violent crime did a speedy but thorough job of assessing the crime problem and came up with 64 different recommendations to improve our federal effort. We have already implemented 75% of those recommendations. Indeed the law enforcement coordinating committees that are now pulling together federal state and local law enforcement efforts and resources and have highlighted the urgency of the drug problem were created as a result of task force recommendations. By achieving the amendment of the Posse Kamatata's law we have been able to utilize the military's resources and its tracking and intelligence capabilities in the fight against drug traffickers. Through amendments to the Tax Reform Act more crucial information is more readily available to law enforcement and more tax cases are possible against drug dealers and organized crime. I've asked both Ed Meese Councilor of the President and Dan Murphy the Chief of Staff to the Vice President to join us today to describe our efforts in two other areas the legislative arena and the crime emergency we have tackled in South Florida. As Ed will tell you we have proposed many significant legislative reforms that would further our efforts against organized crime and drug trafficking. We urge the Congress to consider and act speedily on these proposals. Ed. Thank you Bill. It's a real pleasure for me to be here today as part of the preliminaries to the main event but I did want to use this opportunity just for a moment to express to the group here who by your very presence has indicated what the Attorney General has already mentioned and that is that probably more so than any time that I can remember in the last 20 years or so that I've had any connection with this kind of work the executive branch is cooperating and coordinating their efforts so that we have a single unified approach from the federal government to the crime problem. This is true not only in law enforcement operations of which you'll hear more from Dan Murphy and you've already heard from Bill Webster but in addition it is true also as far as the legislative program of the executive branch presenting our measures to Congress is concerned and that is starting to pay off as the Attorney General has already mentioned but I think it's important that we understand that we have two purposes for our legislative program the first of course is to improve the laws under which the federal law enforcement agencies and the federal courts operate but in addition to that we have an opportunity through the legislative measures we propose to set an example for the states in some of the difficult area of criminal proceedings so that by using the resources that are in the Department of Justice and the various other departments to come up with good legislation here it can be a prototype for the various states to copy in their own legislatures that's particularly true in some of the things that I'll mention briefly this morning as the Attorney General has said we've already achieved some results in terms of the Posse Commitatus Act and the Tax Disclosure Act in addition a bill on pretrial services was passed by the Congress this year which will improve the ability of federal judges to decide who ought to be released on pretrial release programs and we've also had passed the Omnibus Victims Protection Act of 1982 which recognizes the victim as an important part of the criminal justice system both in terms of protection against harassment of victims and witnesses and also at the time of sentencing and in times of the probation or restitution orders that might be made by a judge but we have several important measures pending before the Congress when they come back in November and hopefully we'll get some of them passed then and if not we will try again with the new Congress in January one of the most important is the Omnibus Crime Bill which has provisions for bail reform drug penalties protection of federal officials sentencing reform which would change from an indeterminate sentence to a specific sentence that a judge would meet out and know that the criminal who is sentenced would actually serve the time that he has imposed provisions for the forfeiture of property where homes, bank accounts cars, planes can be more easily forfeited those that are used particularly in narcotics activities so that we can take some of the profit out of crime particularly in the narcotics area and also a measure which would enable us to turn over to state and local governments surplus federal property either buildings or prison facilities or land so that we can help state and local governments with their very critical shortage of jail and prison space this bill by the way passed the senate 95 to 1 and we see no reason why it should not have equally speedy passage through the house if the leadership there is willing another important measure and perhaps one of the most far-reaching measures before the congress is the criminal justice reform act which has three basic provisions which particularly would serve as a prototype for state governments the first has to do with the insanity defense reforming the insanity defense so that we take out the present game that's played between hot and cold running psychiatrists on both sides and get it back into a search for truth so that only those people who truly did not have the mental capacity to commit the act are excluded from criminal responsibility a second provision has to do with federal intervention and state criminal proceedings so that we limit the use of the habeas corpus and other proceedings to try to thwart completed criminal proceedings within the states and finally and perhaps again a most important feature is the modification of the exclusionary rule to include a good faith exception so that the police officer who has acted in good faith or even acted on the basis of the law as it was at the time that he had to commence his operation would then be protected so the evidence would not be thrown out if a court later on changes its mind or changes the law or decides that technically there was an impropriety because of some technical reason well these are the kinds of things that we are proposing that we hope will be passed very quickly and which will make a material improvement in the criminal law both in the federal courts and also as I say as an example to the states but it's this combination of good legislation improved administrative procedures and better coordinated operations such as we're discussing today that will make the federal effort against crime particularly against narcotics and against organized crime the kind of thing that our citizens can be can take pride in that we are doing our primary responsibility of government which is to protect the lives and property of our citizens thank you thank you very much Ed when this administration took office south florida had become a focal point of violence and corruption because of its sudden transformation into the central conduit for illegal drug traffic in this country at the direction of the president vice president bush brought together many of the people in this room including personnel from the justice department treasury and customs transportation and the coast guard and the defense department to mount a cooperation to mount a coordinated attack in south florida in a few short months the south florida task force has had many successes and i've asked dan murphy the vice president's chief of staff to describe that effort van thank you mr. attorney general distinguished members of congress distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen it's a pleasure to represent the vice president today who is out on the political trail who would like to have been here himself and my job in a couple of minutes is try to give you an idea of what we have been doing in south florida it was back on 28 january when the president pulled together what may well be the most powerful task force this country has ever seen as the attorney general just pointed out headed up by the vice president including the attorney general secretary of state secretary of defense secretary of the treasury secretary of transportation hhs and edmonds himself from the white house now what the president was reacting to was the plight of a terrified community in south florida murders had doubled in the two years previous to the establishment of the task force as the attorney general just pointed out 23% of the drug related murders were with machine guns very violent crime facing the citizens of south florida an organized drug crime was really running rampant 80% of all of the marijuana and cocaine coming into the united states was coming across the beaches of florida either by ship or by air so what we faced was an emergency situation that required very specific action now when the vice president looked at this problem what did he face well it's a problem you are well familiar with there were not enough jails or prisons there were not enough judges the judges said there were not enough courtrooms so there was no room for more judges there was no permanent U.S. attorney there were not enough prosecuting attorneys there was insufficient law enforcement people there was not enough offshore surveillance and there was a need for greater cooperation on the part of the source countries the overseas countries where these drugs come from well since the inauguration of the task force effort there have been many improvements the federal prison system has accepted over 100 state prisoners relieving some of the pressures on the state prisons the U.S. attorney is loaning four federal prosecutors to the states to the state of florida to try and clean out some of the more violent backlog of crime murderers and rapists there's been some federal property turned over not as much as we would like but with the legislation that admis was talking about we could accelerate some of that and this property has been turned into temporary jail space chief justice burger has provided four federal judges on a continuing basis and that was started back in june GSA got four more courtrooms make room for those four judges we now have a fine permanent U.S. attorney in stanley marcus down there and he's brought aboard 10 maybe more by now hard charging prosecuting attorneys as far as law enforcement has been beefed up across the board DEA and additional 60 customs and 160 the FBI 41 ATF 50 more in immigration border patrol and U.S. marshals all told something in the order between 300 and 400 extra men and women trying to enforce the laws of south florida one big improvement was in the offshore surveillance thanks mainly to the change in the posse comitatus law first the U.S. customs actually doubled its effectiveness over previous months and then the defense department came through in great fashion to help our effort down there we've they've provided us with radar surveillance air craft both navy and air force this is very important the smuggling aircraft come in very low under the radar coverage of the along the coastline these aircraft have the ability to look down and detect low slow flying aircraft and that has practically brought that traffic to a halt the navy has provided patrol planes p3c's out trying to help the coast guard find these mother ships loaded down with marijuana Cobra helicopters were given over to customs to chase these guys as they tried to land on abandoned airfields the army provided two Huey helicopters to our DEA forces working in the Bahamas with the Bahamian police a sort of a quick reaction force to go into these little islands to try and catch them when they're on the ground we provided a whole communication network throughout the Bahamas to help coordinate this effort all in all I think the results of this exercise can mainly be seen in the great cooperation and the coordination that we have among something like one dozen separate agencies and departments the there is an effort at the moment down in Florida to try and run some of the forces that we have in place and I think the president of the United States will be here shortly we'll be prepared to address that problem thank you United States described today have achieved notable successes showing what resolve and coordination can accomplish even with limited resources nevertheless the magnitude of the drug problem and the involvement of organized crime have dwarfed even those efforts many months ago this administration realized that a new effort was needed an effort that incorporates new resources and builds upon the lessons we have learned including a recognition of the role of organized crime I've heard it said that no government can ultimately eliminate the illegal activities that provide the revenue and support for organized crime that is only true as far as it goes government cannot stop every form of illicit activity but it can break apart and ultimately destroy tightly knit networks of racketeers and drug traffickers who live off organized criminal activities and this administration intends to do exactly that the president working with all the affected agencies of the federal government has put together a new initiative that we believe can directly challenge both organized crime and drug trafficking in America we began with a simple theme enunciated by the president himself last year as the president told the international association of chiefs of police the existence of syndicates of highly organized criminals and public officials who peddle their sacred trust are blots on American history I can assure you no administration has ever been more anxious to work towards wiping away those blots ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to present to you the president of the united states thank you very much bill and thank all of you ladies and gentlemen I'm always a little self-conscious when I carry this bundle of papers up here but I assure you it isn't going to be as long as the papers make it look the printing is very big but you know I I know the importance of brevity in a in a speech I was campaigning and fellow came up to me after the speech and he was looking kind of accusingly at me and he says you got a nice tan and I said well I've been doing a lot of outdoor rallies well he says you talk too long I'm delighted to be here but I want to say at the outset that I didn't come today just to give a pep talk or exchange niceties those of you engaged in law enforcement have struggled long and hard in what must often have seemed like a a losing war against the menace of crime I'm grateful to you for that and so are the American people but besides being grateful I have some good news for you a major initiative that I believe can mark a turning point in the battle against crime as all of you know crime today is an American epidemic it takes the lives of over 20,000 Americans a year touches nearly a third of America's homes and results in about 8.8 billion dollars a year in financial losses I've resisted figuring out and doing what is sometimes typical in remarks of this kind and that is to tell you how many people are going to be murdered while I'm talking to you but these statistics suggest that our criminal justice system is broken down that it just isn't working and many Americans are losing faith in it 9 out of 10 Americans believe that the courts in their home areas aren't tough enough on criminals and the cold statistics do demonstrate the failure of our criminal justice system to adequately pursue prosecute and punish criminals in new york city for example less than 1 percent of reported felonies end in a prison term for the offender the perception is growing that the crime problem stems from the emergence of a new privilege class in America a class of repeat offenders and career criminals who think they have a right to victimize their fellow citizens with virtual impunity they're openly contemptuous of our way of justice they don't believe they'll be caught and if they are caught they're confident that once their cases enter our legal system the charges will be dropped postponed plea bargained away or lost in a maze of legal technicalities that make a mockery of our legitimate honorable concern with civil liberties once again the research shows that this common perception has a strong basis in fact just take one limited part of the crime picture transit police in new york estimate that only 500 habitual offenders were responsible for nearly half of the crimes committed in their subways last year this rise in crime this growth of a hardened criminal class has partly been the result of misplaced government priorities and a misguided social philosophy at the root of this philosophy lies utopian presumptions about human nature that see man as primarily a creature of his material environment by changing this environment through expensive social programs this philosophy holds that government can permanently change man and usher in an era of prosperity and virtue in much the same way individual wrongdoing is seen as the result of poor socio-economic conditions or an underprivileged background this philosophy suggests in short that there is crime or wrongdoing the society not the and the society not the individual is to blame but what has also become abundantly clear in the last few years is that a new political consensus among the American people utterly rejects this point of view the increase in citizen involvement of the crime problem and the tough new state statutes directed at repeat offenders make it clear that the American people are reasserting certain enduring truths the belief that right and wrong do matter that individuals are responsible for their actions that evil is frequently a conscious choice and that retribution must be swift and sure for those who decide to make a career of praying on the innocent this administration even as we're struggling with our economic and international problems has also been attempting to deal with the threat of crime and to speak for this new consensus as you know one of the most critical duties that we faced upon taking office was controlling the influx of illegal drugs into this country the south florida task force which we established under the leadership of vice president george bush has in the opinion of virtually all knowledgeable observers been highly successful in slowing the illegal flow of drugs into the united states I'll return to the subject of illegal drug trade in a moment but let me say now that what was happening in south florida is an example of the increasing sophistication and power of organized criminal enterprises and the grave danger that they pose to our nation when I spoke in new Orleans last year to the international association of chiefs of police I made the point then as bill has told you and I don't think that I should repeat it now that but we do draw distinctions between violent crime sophisticated crime or between crimes like drug pushing and crimes like bribery the truth is crime doesn't come in categories it's part of a pattern if one sector prospers in the community of crime so ultimately do all the others as I said then these the street criminal the drug pusher the mobster the corrupt policeman public official they form their own criminal subculture they contribute to and they prosper in a climate of lawlessness they need each other they use each other they protect each other and that brings us to the major and sweeping effort that I'm announcing this morning for many years we have tolerated in America not just in the illegal and highly dangerous drug traffic but in many other areas a syndicate of organized criminals whose power is now reaching unparalleled heights the personal suffering they cause to our society in human and fiscal terms the climate of lawlessness that its very existence fosters has made this network of professional criminals a costly and tragic part of our history today the power of organized crime reaches into every segment of our society it is estimated that the syndicate has millions of dollars of assets in legitimate businesses it controls corrupt union locals it runs burglary rings it fences for stolen goods holds a virtual monopoly on the heroin trade it thrives on illegal gambling pornography gun running car theft arson and a host of other illegal activities the existence of this nationwide criminal network and its willingness and too often its success in corrupting and gaining protection from those in high places is an affront to every law-biting American and an encouragement to every street punk or two-bit criminal who hopes someday to make it into the big time the reasons for the mob's success are clear its tactics and techniques are well known organization and discipline vows of secrecy and loyalty insulation of its leaders from direct criminal involvement bribery and corruption of law enforcement and public officials violence and threats against those who would testify or resist this criminal conspiracy all have contributed to the protective curtain of silence that surrounds its activities through the years a few dedicated Americans have broken the curtain surrounding this menace and successfully rooted it out their names are familiar prosecutor Thomas Dewey and judge William C. Berry federal agent Elliott Ness and senators Keith Alver and McClellan Attorney General Brown L. and Kennedy investigative reporter Don Bollis important and increasingly effective investigations and prosecutions have also been achieved with the FBI and the Justice Department strike forces but too often the efforts against the mob made by a few dedicated policemen prosecutors reporters or public officials have resulted in only temporary gains the time has come to make these gains permanent the time has come to cripple the power of the mob in America a few months ago Attorney General William French Smith and his staff in collaboration with the Treasury Department put together final plans for a national strategy to expose, prosecute and ultimately cripple organized crime in America and I want to announce this program today it is one that outlines a national strategy that I believe will bring us very close to removing a stain from American history that has lasted nearly a hundred years this program is very detailed but let me now outline just a few of its major facets first, in view of the success of the South Florida Task Force and because of increasing organized crime involvement and drug abuse we will establish 12 additional task forces in key areas in the United States these task forces under the direction of the Attorney General will work closely with state and local law enforcement officials following the South Florida example they'll utilize the resources of the federal government including the FBI the DEA the IRS the ATF Immigration and Naturalization Service United States Marshall Services the U.S. Custom Service and the Coast Guard in addition in some regions Department of Defense tracking and pursuit capability will be made available I believe that these task forces will allow us to mount an intensive and coordinated campaign against international and domestic drug trafficking and other organized criminal enterprises second no weapon against organized crime or more has proved more effective or more important to law enforcement then the investigations carried on by the Keith Alver Committee and the McClellan Committee in the 1950s or the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on investigations which as many of you may remember heard testimony from federal informant Joseph Velechi in the 1960s although several other commissions on crime have been appointed since then none has had the time and the resources to fully investigate the syndicate and lay out a national strategy for its elimination accordingly I am announcing the creation of a panel of 15 distinguished Americans from diverse backgrounds and professions with practical experience in criminal justice and combating organized crime the purpose of this commission which will last for three years will be to undertake a region by region analysis of organized crimes influence to analyze and debate the data it gathers and to hold public hearings on the findings not only will the work of this commission lead to important legislative recommendations it will also heighten public awareness and knowledge about the threat of organized crime and mobilize citizen support for its eradication third this administration will launch a project similar to the 50 States project now underway in the area of women's rights that will enlist the nation's governors in bringing about needed criminal justice reforms for example without effective enforcement of local and state statutes against various kinds of racketeering like illegal gambling this vital source of revenue for organized crime will never be fully dried up this governor's project will attempt to bring to the attention of the states the importance of such initiatives and will serve as a sounding board for the governor's concerns fourth all the diverse agencies and law enforcement bureaus of the federal government will be brought together in a comprehensive attack on drug trafficking and organized crime under a cabinet level committee chaired by the attorney general and a working group chaired by the associate attorney general their job will be to review interagency and intergovernmental cooperation in the struggle against organized crime and when necessary bring problems in these areas to my attention and fifth we're establishing through departments of justice and treasury a national center for state and local law enforcement training at the federal facility in glenco georgia this center which will complement the already excellent training programs run by the fbi and dea will assist and train local law enforcement agents and officials in committing or combating new kinds of syndicated crimes such as arson bombing bribery computer theft contract fraud and bid rigging as well as drug smuggling sixth this administration will open a new legislative offensive that is aimed to win approval of reforms in criminal statutes dealing with bail sentencing criminal forfeiture the exclusionary rule and labor racketeering that are essential in the fight against organized crime seventh I will ask that the attorney general be required to submit a yearly report to the people through the president and the congress on the status of the fight against organized crime and organized criminal groups dealing in drugs this requirement all those simple and inexpensive will establish a formal mechanism through which the justice department will take a yearly inventory of its efforts in this area and report to the american people on its progress and eighth millions of dollars will be allocated for prison and jail facilities so that the mistake of releasing dangerous criminals because of overcrowded prisons will not be repeated I believe this program will prove to be a highly effective attack on drug trafficking and the even larger problem of organized crime in fact its first year will probably cost less than what is spent in one day on illegal drugs in this country or what is spent by one week by many federal programs but let this much be clear our commitment to this program is unshakable we intend to do what is necessary to end the drug menace and cripple organized crime we live at a turning point one of those critical errors in history when time and circumstances unite with the sound instincts of good and decent people to make a crucial difference in the lives of future generations we can and will make a difference this is the justification for the offensive of unorganized criminal enterprises that I've outlined today it comes down in the end to a simple question we must ask ourselves what kind of people are we if we continue to tolerate in our midst an invisible lawless empire can we honestly say that America is a land with justice for all if we do not now exert every effort to eliminate this confederation of professional criminals this dark evil enemy within you know the answer to that question the American people want the mob and its associates brought to justice and their power broken not out of a sense of vengeance but out of a sense of justice not just from an obligation to punish the guilty but from an even stronger obligation to protect the innocent not simply for the sake of legalities but for the sake of the law that is the protection of liberty justice James Madison wrote in the federalist papers is the end of government it is the end of civil society it ever has and ever will be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit for the sake of our children for the sake of all the magnificent accomplishments of the American past today I ask for your support and the support of our people in this effort to fight the drug menace to eradicate the cancers of organized crime and public corruption to make our streets and houses safe again and to return America to the days of respect for the law and the rights of the innocent thank you very much