Local prosecutors are steamed that the feds are hijacking a new anti-drug strike force – which will use $2 million of state money to prosecute drug dealers in federal court.
Some area district attorneys won’t attend the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force’s ribbon-cutting ceremony set for Thursday.
Local law-enforcement officials question why the task force of 240 federal agents, NYPD cops, state police and federal prosecutors is getting help with state dollars – although the task force’s new cases will be handled in federal court “as a matter of course.”
They also question why the task force excludes the state’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office, which handles most long-term drug probes in the city.
Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau wrote a letter Monday in which he declined to attend the ceremony.
“He [Morgenthau] doesn’t think it’s what it’s billed: a model law-enforcement partnership,” a high-ranking official in his office said. “It counters what should be a growing trend to work together.
“The Special Prosecutor’s Office is an extremely active office and conducts more wiretaps than all the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in [the] state combined,” the source said. “We see no reason to shut them out.”
Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan will send a subordinate to the ceremony, his spokesman said.
Bronx DA Robert Johnson will attend. But it’s unclear whether the DAs in Brooklyn and Queens will show up.
The Drug Enforcement Administration chief in New York, Anthony Placido, said that while the task force is funded by state money, it will go after international narcotics traffickers, who must be tried in federal courts.
Placido said he’s willing to refer appropriate cases to state prosecutors.