[2] In January 1982, Reagan designated Vice President George H. W. Bush to lead a cross-agency drug interdiction team called the South Florida Task Force.

The operation involved the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies, and Armed Forces ships and planes.

Desiring a more comprehensive, nationwide attack to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in the US, Reagan announced the formation of the OCDETF Program on October 14, 1982.

I believe that these task forces will allow us to mount an intensive and coordinated campaign against international and domestic drug trafficking and other organized criminal enterprises.

It describes its mission is "to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in the United States and diminish the associated violence and other transnational organized criminal activities, including violent street gangs,[11] that present the greatest threat to public safety as well as economic and national security.

In recognition of the demonstrated interrelationship between criminal organizations that engage in illicit drug trafficking and those that engage in international organized crime involving a broader range of criminal activity, the IOC-2 works in close partnership with the OFC and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division (a member of the United States Intelligence Community).

[17] The United States Department of Justice Criminal Division's s Office of Enforcement Operations reviews DOJ components' Title III wiretap applications.