El Paso Intelligence Center

Supports law enforcement efforts throughout the world

by Michael Webster Jan 16, 2008 3:00 PM PST

The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) was established in 1974 in response to a Justice Management Division Study entitled, "A Secure Border." : An Analysis of Issues Affecting the U.S. Department of Justice to the Office of Management and Budget. The report provided recommendations on how to improve drug- and border-enforcement operations along the Southwest border. The report provided recommendations on how to improve drug- and border-enforcement operations along the Southwest border.  Recommendation number 7 of this study suggested the establishment of a southwest border intelligence service center to be led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and staffed by representatives of that agency, as well as the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The initial focus and in response to that study of the Center was to collect and disseminate information relating to drug, alien, and weapon smuggling in support of field enforcement entities throughout the region. Further to assist in the identification of drug traffickers and alien traffickers along the U.S. - Mexico border. The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) was created and was initially staffed by representatives of the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs Service, and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

EPIC is now staffed with over 300 personnel and liaison officers from 15 agencies.

The current EPIC facility was dedicated on February 22, 1989 in memory of DEA  Special Agent  Enrique (Kiki) Camarena Salazar who was slain in the line of duty while conducting an undercover operation in Mexico. Expanded in 1998-1999, EPIC headquarters is located at 11339 Ssg Sims St., Biggs Field, TX 79908 (31.8302 N, 106.3743 W), which is on the territory of Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and is run jointly by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the pre-DHS era, the three main federal agencies at EPIC were DEA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Customs Service.

Agencies currently represented at EPIC include DOJ’s Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Secret Service, as well as the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of Defense (i.e., Joint Task Force-North, JIATF-South, and the Defense Information Systems Agency). The Tri-Center Intelligence Requirements Collection Management Program is made up of Collection Managers from EPIC, Joint Task Force-North, and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol Field Intelligence Center (BORFIC) and is supported technically by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s FORUM Intelligence Requirements Collection Management System.

Initially, EPIC, as the facility became known, focused on the United States-Mexico border with an emphasis on Mexico's heroin traffickers and illegal alien smugglers. With the increased use of aircraft, seagoing vessels, and global networks to facilitate drug trafficking, EPIC's focus broadened and became international in scope. So not only does EPIC serve 15 Federal agencies, all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, but also supports law enforcement efforts conducted by foreign counterparts throughout the world, and currently has Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Canada, Australia, and The Netherlands. In response to increased multiagency needs, EPIC developed into a fully coordinated, tactical intelligence center supported by databases and resources from member agencies.

In 2001, immediately after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, the multiagency environment of EPIC was called upon to support investigations to find those responsible. EPIC’s mission evolved from its experience in supporting interdiction efforts and investigations regarding drug trafficking, alien and weapon smuggling, and other criminal activities, by adding counterterrorism to its efforts.

EPIC’s vision is to continue to provide timely and expeditious support to Federal, State, local, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies and to remain the premier tactical operational intelligence center in the nation.

Interpol

El Paso Intelligence Center

Defense Intelligence Agency

EL Paso Police Dept.

El Paso County Sheriff's Dept.