Organized Crime

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's Organized Crime Strike Forces' efforts to increase interagency planning and coordination of investigations and prosecutions of organized crime groups.

GAO found that: (1) strike forces had only achieved some informal interagency planning and coordination on a case-by-case basis; (2) none of the strike force executive committees had reviewed and planned federal enforcement efforts or devised ways to enhance communications among the involved agencies; (3) although Justice recommended integrating strike forces into U.S. attorneys' offices, the strike forces opposed merger because they thought the attorneys would be shifted away from organized crime cases; (4) Justice proposed a compromise where the merger would not occur, but U.S. attorneys would have increased influence over strike forces; and (5) Justice had not developed measures to assess the strike forces' effectiveness.