Anticrime Tools

For more than 35 years, the Narcotics Rewards Program (NRP) has been an effective tool to assist the U.S. government in disrupting and dismantling transnational drug trafficking organizations to protect American lives and U.S. national security.  The program gives the Secretary of State statutory authority to offer rewards of up to $25 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of narcotics traffickers who operate primarily outside of the United States and are major violators of U.S. narcotics laws. 

Successes of the program include the arrests of heads of drug trafficking organizations, as well as other criminals whose international drug trafficking activities are integral to their illicit activities.  To date, the NRP has helped bring more than 75 foreign major violators of U.S. narcotics laws to justice, and the Department of State has paid over $135 million in rewards to individuals who came forward with information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of these criminals.    

The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) manages the program in close coordination with the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE/HSI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other interested U.S. agencies. 

Individuals outside the United States wishing to provide information on major narcotics traffickers designated under the NRP should submit information according to the rewards poster issued for each designated target or may contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.  In the United States, individuals may also contact the relevant law enforcement agency, such as DEA, FBI, ICE, and other interested U.S. agencies. 

Reward offers may be made public on the Department of State website.  Government officers and employees are not eligible for rewards.  If the Secretary determines that the identity of the recipient of a reward payment must be protected, appropriate measures will be taken to do so to ensure their safety.

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Since 2013, the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) has supported law enforcement efforts to disrupt and dismantle illicit trafficking and other transnational criminal networks to protect American lives and U.S. national security.   The program gives the Secretary of State statutory authority to offer rewards of up to $25 million for information leading to the reduction of transnational crime, disruption of the financial mechanisms that enable them, and the arrest and/or conviction of members and leaders.  The program covers transnational crimes beyond drug trafficking that cause direct and significant harm to lives and communities through criminal acts such as cybercrime, human trafficking, money laundering wildlife trafficking, and trafficking in arms and other illicit goods.    

INL manages the program in close coordination with the Department of Justice and U.S. federal law enforcement agencies. 

Individuals outside the United States wishing to provide information on transnational organized criminals designated under the TOCRP should submit information according to the rewards poster issued for each designated target or may contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. In the United States, individuals may also contact the relevant law enforcement agency, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), , the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or other interested U.S. agencies. 

Reward offers may be made public on the State Department website.  Government officers and employees are not eligible for rewards. If the Secretary determines that the identity of the recipient of a reward payment must be protected, appropriate measures will be taken to do so.

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 INL supports the implementation of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade (E.O. 14059), and Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Program (E.O. 13581). 

The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, signed into law in December 1999, targets, on a worldwide basis, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and operatives.   The purpose of the Kingpin Act is to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and to prohibit all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals.  The Kingpin Act requires that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency coordinate to identify drug kingpins and propose them to the President for sanctions.  The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs leads the Department’s foreign policy input and coordination on the Kingpin sanctions program. 

Under Executive Order 14059, Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade, the Department of the Treasury is empowered to impose sanctions on persons determined, in consultation with the Secretary of State, among others, to have engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.  This E.O. builds on two decades of deliberate and impactful sanctions imposed pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and implements, in part, the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.  With this new E.O., the U.S. Government is better poised to disrupt the global supply chain and financial networks that enable synthetic opioids and precursors chemicals to reach U.S. markets and harm American communities.  This new authority allows the United States to better target and disrupt those across the drug ecosystem and to safeguard the U.S. financial system from use and abuse by those involved in the illicit drug trade.  The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs leads the Department’s foreign policy input and concurrence on the sanctions program. 

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The Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Program began in 2011, when the President issued Executive Order 13581, declaring a national emergency to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the activities of significant transnational criminal organizations.  In 2019, by Executive Order 13863, the President took additional steps to deal with the national emergency in view of the evolution of these organizations as well as the increasing sophistication of their activities, which threaten international political and economic systems and pose a direct threat to the safety and welfare of the United States and its citizens.  E.O. 13863, which amends E.O. 13581, allows the Department of the Treasury to deploy financial sanctions tools to target transnational criminal organizations that solely operate in the United States and one other country.  The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs leads the Department’s foreign policy input and coordination with the Department of the Treasury on the sanctions program. 

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