Operation Blue Storm Named Most Outstanding Case

United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Deborah R. Gilg, has announced that Operation Blue Storm was selected as the National Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) most outstanding regional drug trafficking case for 2012. An awards ceremony was held at the United States Attorney’s Office honoring the investigators and prosecutors involved in this case. The cooperative efforts of these individuals made the Operation Blue Storm OCDETF case such a resounding success. The award recipient agencies involved in the case included twenty-five investigators and prosecutors from the following agencies: Bellevue Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Omaha Police Department, Peoria (AZ) Police Department and United States Attorney’s Office – District of Nebraska.

At the ceremony, United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg commented, “The outstanding work done by this collaboration of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies disrupted a major tentacle of the Sinaloa Mexican Cartel to the Midwestern region.  This demonstrates law enforcement teamwork at its best.”

The OCDETF program was established in 1982 as a multi-agency, nationwide effort to pursue intelligence-driven, coordinated multi-jurisdictional investigations of criminal organizations trafficking drugs and laundering the illicit proceeds of crime.  The OCDETF Program forms the centerpiece of the DOJ counter-narcotics strategy and is also the platform through which the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Treasury pursue complex drug and drug-related money laundering investigations. Through the OCDETF Program, these three Executive Departments use prosecutor-led, multi-agency task forces to combat high-priority national and international organized criminal organizations.