Date: January 6, 2021 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation joined local and federal law enforcement leaders today for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the Cleveland Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force facility. The new facility will allow police, federal investigators and both state and federal prosecutors to collaborate and share resources on investigations into criminal organizations at one central location. The organizational structure of the new facility allows for real-time, collaborative, centralized intelligence sharing between member agencies. Present in the facility are officers, investigators and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District, FBI, DEA, HSI, IRS-CI, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, Cleveland Division of Police, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Border Patrol, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the Independence Police Department and several other local area law enforcement agencies. Launched in 2018, the Cleveland OCDETF Strike Force brings together local police agencies, federal agents and prosecutors to work collaboratively on investigations into major criminal organizations and their subsidiaries trafficking narcotics, weapons, humans and the proceeds of those crimes. Cooperative investigations are focused on dissolving these organizations, their financial infrastructure, and the violence that accompanies their activities. In addition, the Strike Force also targets violent street gangs involved in retaliatory homicides, carjackings, commercial robberies and other violent activities, as well as people and organizations involved in trafficking opioids.
