JIATF-South: Blueprint for Success

Over the last 17 years, the Joint Interagency Task Force-South JIATF-S has built an unparalleled network of law enforcement, intelligence, and military assets to focus on detecting the movements and shipments of narcoterrorist organizations. With this evolving structure, JIATF-S serves as a model for bringing the most effective assets to bear on complex national policy issues, whether it be illegal drugs, weapons proliferation, or international terrorism. Fundamental to any task force is a clear mission statement. If the statement, and thus the mission itself, lacks specific goals, agencies may be reluctant to participate for fear they have little to gain. Therefore, JIATF-S must target specific missions and clearly define their objectives, to include detecting, monitoring, and targeting narcoterrorists and the drugs they profit from. Since law enforcement agencies have a vested interest in achieving these objectives, the application of an interagency partnership has been successful. The JIATF-S model expands joint operations into combined and interagency operations to accomplish common goals. If organizations want to engage highly mobile threats against both homeland defense and homeland security targets, they must go beyond purely joint operations and adopt this successful model. JIATF-S serves as a model that other interagency organizations can tailor to their specific goals.