JIATF West

Individual Information

About Joint Interagency Task Force West

Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF West) is the U.S. Pacific Command’s (US PACOM) Supported Commander for Department of Defense (DoD) support to law enforcement for Counter Drug (CD) and drug-related mission. The JIATF West team is made up of approximately 100 professionals comprised of active duty and reserve military, DoD civilians, contractors, and U.S. Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) liaison officers.

Mission

JIATF West, in coordination with U.S. law enforcement, interagency and partner nations, combats, disrupts and dismantles drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations, to protect U.S. lives, interests, and regional stability in the Indo-Pacific.

Strategic End State

Organizations that threaten the U.S., its territories, and its interests are denied the ability to traffic illicit drugs and precursor chemicals used to produce illicit drugs in the US PACOM AOR; the environment is less permissive for their activities; and regional partnerships and stability are enhanced.

More Resources

• JIATF West Facebook Page
• JIATF West Twitter(X) Page
• JIATF West LinkedIn Page
• JIATF West Instagram Page

Our Approach to Combating Transnational Crime

Since arriving to Hawaii in 2004, JIATF West has developed a strategy with supporting activities to face the particular challenges of the Indo-Pacific region, and to meet the evolving needs of our law enforcement partners. JIATF West works closely with law enforcement leadership partners across the region to increase support to major law enforcement operations and the investigations which support those operations.

Indo-Pacific based criminal enterprises are organized on a business model of networked criminal service providers. The U.S. law enforcement strategy to combat these criminal networks concentrates on long-term criminal investigations in order to prosecute organizations' leadership and seize criminally gained assets. These efforts lead to disrupting and dismantling criminal enterprises. 

By joining forces with U.S. and foreign partner law enforcement agencies, we are able to effectively augment and enhance their ability to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal enterprise networks.  

The JIATF West Strategy

Our strategy is built on the premise of interagency cooperation. JIATF West partners with U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies through regional U.S. Embassies and their respective country teams. We bring military and law enforcement capabilities together to combat and reduce transnational crime in the Indo-Pacific.

• Partnerships enable three general categories of synergy and effectiveness:
• Applying Department of Defense and intelligence resources to ongoing investigations
• Building partner nation law enforcement capabilities to increase their effectiveness
• Bring partners into a wider network of law enforcement agencies

We offer specific programs to support the above categories:

• Intelligence analysis and related tradecraft to support investigations
• Identification and monitoring of criminal trafficking and activities
• Facilitate hands-on and classroom training (including investigations, search and seizure, maritime skills, small craft maintenance, financial investigative techniques, open-source intelligence, analytical methodologies-tools-practices-techniques, and other skills)
• Small Scale Infrastructure (building refurbishment, training facilities, operations center, border checkpoints, and other projects)