The U.S. Justice Department will shut down its flagship anti-cartel task force as part of the most far-reaching DOJ shakeup in two decades, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.
Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the plan in September, setting in motion a “reduction in force” that will cut approximately 275 positions and eliminate or involuntarily reassign roughly 140 employees. Letters to affected staff in units slated for closure were due earlier this week, the documents indicate.
Among other cuts, the plan approves the closing of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, a prosecutor-led interagency unit formed by the Reagan administration to fight drug trafficking, Reuters said. The task force, which has historically targeted such drug-trafficking groups as the Sinaloa Cartel, has helped to coordinate large-scale investigations conducted across federal and state law enforcement.
Current and former officials who spoke with Reuters said the decision startled them, noting the program’s alignment with the Trump administration’s stated priority of pursuing top-tier trafficking organizations. Critics warned that dissolving the task force could undercut complex, multi-district investigations that depend on centralized strategies, pooled funding, and cross-agency deconfliction.
The department will separately merge the two sections that handle drug cases and money-laundering investigations, according to Reuters, which also noted that DOJ’s human-trafficking office will be moved to the Criminal Division.
“This isn’t a reorganization. It’s a decimation of some of DOJ’s most vital work,” Stacey Young, a former department attorney who now leads the nonprofit Justice Connection, told Reuters. She and other former officials argued the move could slow drug prosecutions by fragmenting coordination and disrupting established investigative pipelines.
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