Operation ATLAS: Targeting Illegal Cash Couriers Worldwide

Today Secretary Napolitano and World Customs Organization Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya joined together in Brussels to announce the results of an unprecedented international law enforcement operation that led to the seizure of more than $3.5 million in smuggled cash over a five day period.

Dubbed Operation ATLAS (Assess, Target, Link, Analyze and Share), this groundbreaking investigation brought together law enforcement agencies from over 80 countries worldwide to target and disrupt cash couriers--people employed by criminal organizations to move their illicit funds across international borders.

Operation ATLAS focused on identifying these illicit cash couriers by employing several different methods to detect cash carried in baggage, on travelers and in shipments aboard commercial flights at designated airports. ATLAS also promoted the sharing of information and intelligence among customs agencies. In the United States, this operation was led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with participation from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and coordinated by the World Customs Organization.

Operation ATLAS is the latest and largest example of how increased international cooperation among law enforcement and customs agencies has resulted in the identification of new smuggling routes and methods used by criminal organizations throughout the world.

In September, ICE worked closely with law enforcement partners in Colombia and Mexico to uncover more than $41 million smuggled in shipping containers bound for Colombia. And in July, an ICE-led multilateral operation targeting cash couriers seized more than $3.5 million and detected an additional $4.2 million in undeclared currency at ports of entry around the globe.

This level of multilateral coordination is truly unprecedented and illustrates how the Department and our international allies are working together to shut down criminal organizations’ old ways of doing business.

John Morton
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. and EU Agree on Data Protection Principles

This week the United States and European Union achieved a major milestone in data protection and data sharing. The U.S. – EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial completed a set of common principles that unite our approaches to protecting personal data when exchanging information for law enforcement and security purposes.

The Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State have worked with experts from the EU Presidency and Commission for the past three years to develop these principles. Leadership on both sides of the Atlantic share a deeply rooted commitment to the protection of personal data and privacy when it comes to information sharing. This practical approach will enable Europe and the United States to remain global leaders in privacy protection as we work to protect our citizens from common threats to our security.

The next step is negotiating a binding international EU-U.S. agreement based on these common principles to facilitate further cooperation while ensuring the availability of full protection for our citizens. The Department of Homeland Security looks forward to being a part of those efforts in the months ahead.

Mary Ellen Callahan
Chief Privacy Officer
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

EU-US Joint Statement on "Enhancing transatlantic cooperation in the area of Justice, Freedom and Security" (PDF, 7 pages - 116KB)

Strengthening Partnerships with our International Allies

Yesterday I announced my upcoming trip and some of the initiatives we’ll be advancing with our overseas partners, especially with respect to our counter-terrorism mission.

We recently signed several important agreements with our European allies to improve information sharing and enhance collaboration on the development of science and technology. My trip, which begins this Saturday and will include visits to Ireland, Britain, Portugal, and Spain, with a final stop in Kuwait to visit our Coast Guard operations, will build on these and other efforts.

• In Ireland I will assess preparations for aviation preclearance operations, which are scheduled to begin on July 29.


• In the UK, I’ll be meeting with the new Home Secretary and the new Transport Secretary on a number of issues, including cyber-security, science and technology collaboration, countering violent extremism, and civil aviation security.


• In Portugal, we will discuss ways to improve and increase information sharing to counter threats in both of our countries.


• And in Spain we will discuss enhancing the security of air travel between our two countries, building off of the recent agreements we’ve made to improve criminal information sharing and science and technology cooperation.

In addition to these issues, we will focus on matters of interest to both the United States and European Union as a whole, including the protection of privacy while improving law enforcement and security cooperation, and the Visa Waiver Program and its security enhancements.

We have a strong partnership with Europe when it comes to fighting terrorism and other forms of transnational crime. In the coming weeks, I’ll be talking more about our counter-terrorism efforts both at home and abroad, especially as we approach the 5th anniversary of the release of the 9/11 Commission Report on July 22.

It will be a good opportunity to assess how far we’ve come in our fight against terrorism, our work to secure our country – and what steps remain.

Janet Napolitano

Southwest Border

Last week I traveled to Mexico, with brief stops in California and Texas. The purpose of my visit was to meet with my foreign counterparts, assess the situation on the Southwest Border with respect to drug cartel violence, hear directly from federal, state, tribal, and local officials, and announce some additional resources we are deploying to the border to help Mexico in its fight against these dangerous cartels.

In California, I met with state and local leaders in San Diego, toured the border and visited the Otay Mesa port of entry – one of the busiest commercial ports on the Southwest border.

More than $400 million in Recovery Act funds is being directed to the Southwest border. This money will be used to upgrade infrastructure at the ports of entry, add technology and inspection equipment, and strengthen our surveillance and communications capabilities.

In Mexico, I visited with my foreign counterparts, and along with Attorney General Holder, attended an important conference on arms trafficking. The smuggling of guns is a serious problem and contributes to a lot of the violence we’re seeing in Mexico among the drug cartels and organized criminal networks.

To combat the problem, we are moving substantial resources to border, including more than 360 additional DHS officers and agents, license plate readers that will allow us to scan for suspect vehicles, southbound rail screening, and additional grant funding for state and local law enforcement. These measures will help us counter the flow of guns and cash into Mexico while protecting cities and communities along the border.

Finally, on my return, I stopped in Laredo, Texas to meet with community leaders, speak with members of the Laredo Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST), which is a multi-agency law enforcement team that fights criminal organizations and smugglers, and visit the Laredo port of entry. In recent weeks, we’ve made several significant seizures of cash and guns in Laredo, including more than $3 million discovered in a hidden compartment in the floor of a bus bound for Mexico.

Examples like this impede the ability of criminal organizations to fund their activities. Since the start of this fiscal year, CBP and ICE together have seized more than $55 million in cash, over 630 weapons, and nearly 125,000 rounds of ammunition.

We’re going to continue to keep the pressure on. I consider this a historic opportunity to help Mexico confront a serious threat that impacts the safety and security of both of our countries. We all have a stake in this fight, and here at the Department we’re going to continue to do our part to make sure we succeed.

Janet Napolitano

"G6 plus 1" Meeting in Germany

On Monday, I returned from a trip to Germany in which I met with my homeland security counterparts from six European Union countries. This regular meeting – called the “G6 plus 1” (I’m the “plus 1”) – is an important part of our security cooperation. Threats like terrorism, the spread of infectious diseases, and natural disasters know no borders, which makes global partnership an integral part of American security.

We focused on many different elements of this partnership – including information-sharing about terror suspects, bolstering the security of international cyber networks and combating the smuggling of drugs, money, and people.

One outcome from the trip is a new science and technology agreement with the government of Germany. The photo here shows me at the signing ceremony with the German Minister of Science and Education, Annette Schavan.

This partnership will identify science and technology projects where the U.S. and Germany can collaborate on innovations that improve our security. One effort will kick off in just a few months: developing “visual analytics” technologies that can organize and cluster millions of pieces of intelligence data and arrange them visually, allowing intelligence analysts to understand more quickly the patterns contained in enormous amounts of diffuse information.

I’m excited about the doors this will open to scientific understandings not only of threats, but also solutions. Wherever we can partner with our allies to make both our nations safer, we should – and this will be an important priority moving forward, starting with my visits to Mexico and Canada over the next few weeks.

Janet Napolitano

Secretary Napolitano's Trip to Germany

March 14, 2009 - For her first trip abroad, Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to Germany to participate in the G6 Summit. She met with German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. (Photo /© Federal Ministry of the Interior/Hans-Joachim M. Rickel)