Joint Interagency Task Force West

The task force is run as USINDOPACOM's "executive agent" for counterdrug activities providing support to partner nation law enforcement.furthermore, the committee notes that pre-cursor chemicals used in the production of deadly drugs like synthetic heroin and methamphetamine that threaten the health and safety of American citizens and others around the world originate in and are trafficked from the Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.” In April 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed a memorandum reversing the 2021 DWR decision to deactivate JIATF West.JIATF West lists its "task force partners" as including the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS); United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and the Australian Customs Service, Australian Federal Police, and New Zealand Police.The mission of this group of task forces was soon expanded by Section 1004 of the 1991 National Defense Authorization Act to include ten additional specific categories of support that the department could provide to law enforcement agencies.JIATF West's primary counterdrug focus is on stopping the illicit use of precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine and amphetamine type stimulants (ATS).[8] According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2012, 80 percent of the meth in the United States is made in Mexico mainly using ingredients manufactured in China and shipped across the Pacific.The next major change came from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 1988–1989, signed on 4 December 1987, this included language that added section 380 under title 10, for the enhancement of cooperation with civilian law enforcement officials.[12]The authority to perform detection and monitoring (D&M) of aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs into the United States was granted when congress passed the NDAA for FY 1990–1991 on 29 November 1989 designating the Department of Defense as the single lead agency of the Federal Government for D&M.