committee, dealing with some aspects of crime and criminal procedures. We will probably not be able to process all of them. But, as I indicated in my opening statement, we are going to try to make S. 30 the vehicle for the legislation that is directed primarily at organized crime and providing additional weapons with which to combat organized crime.

This is the reason that this bill has a number of titles, eight, I believe, already. As we hear testimony, and as recommendations come to us, or other bills are introduced, amendments or additional titles may be added to this bill. As we process this bill, we hope that we can consider everything that has been proposed dealing with this subject matter.

Now, Mr. Attorney General, we know that you have been in office only a brief time, but we are confident that as hard as you are working, you may still need time to get completely organized and oriented on all of the problems that confront you. While it may seem a little premature to ask you to testify at this time on all aspects of your work, we would hope that you will give us your general thinking in this area, and get us started off on the right track. This committee wants to cooperate with the executive branch of the Government insofar as it is possible to do so and work together to the end that we will meet our legislative responsibility in this field.

So, again, I thank you for your presence. You have a prepared statement and you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN N. MITCHELL, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES; ACCOMPANIED BY WILL WILSON, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE CRIMINAL DIVISION; AND HENRY PETERSEN, CHIEF, ORGANIZED CRIME AND RACKETEERING SECTION, CRIMINAL DIVISION

Attorney General MITCHELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee.

I would like to point out I am accompanied today by Mr. Will Wilson, on my left, who is an Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, and Mr. Henry Petersen, who is Chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of that Division.

Senator MCCLELLAN. Thank you very much, gentlemen. We welcome you, along with your Chief.

Attorney General MITCHELL. Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today as you commence your current study of the serious problem of organized crime in America.

At the outset, I would like to compliment the chairman on his speech of March 11 on the floor of the Senate. It was a scholarly and precise presentation of the picture of organized crime in the United States and of the necessity for the adoption of such additional tools as those prescribed in S. 30. I would also like to compliment Senator Hruska, who unfortunately is not here to hear this, on his remarks following the chairman's speech.

Too few Americans appreciate the dimensions of the problem of

organized crime; its impact on all Americans, and what must be done to reduce and ultimately eradicate-its sinister and erosive effects. Organized crime can properly be described as a society of criminals who seek to operate outside of the control of the American people and their governments. Its operations are national and international. Its structure is as complex as that of the largest corporation. It is governed by rules rigidly enforced under an edict of terror. Its aims are to monopolize whole fields of activity-legal and illegal-in order that it can amass huge financial profits-which are estimated at several billions of dollars each year.

Investigation discloses that the organized criminal fraternity of La Cosa Nostra is composed of some 24 "families," and has a national membership of over 5,000. Most major cities in the country have at least one family; New York has five. La Cosa Nostra also exerts its influence of coercion over non-Cosa Nostra gangsters throughout the Nation for they must secure Cosa Nostra consent to maintain local criminal operations.

Organized crime is America's principal supplier of illegal goods and services, such as gambling, easily obtainable but usurious loans, narcotics and illicit drugs, prostitution, and other forms of vice. To maintain its exclusive markets for such illegal goods and services and to insulate its activities from governmental interference, organized crime corrupts public officials and wields extensive political influence.

We also find that organized crime is increasingly operating in fields of legitimate business, where it employs such illegitimate techniques as bankruptcy frauds, tax evasion, extortion, terrorism, arson, and monopolization. In so doing, it drives out lawful ownership and extracts exorbitant profits from a captive public. Similarly, it has infiltrated many labor unions.

Perhaps the most insidious feature of organized crime is its ability to victimize many millions of our citizens who for the most part are not even aware of how they are affected, or that they are affected at all. The housewife, for example, has no way of knowing that when the price of meat, bread, vegetables, or dairy products rises, the increase may be the result of an organized crime conspiracy. The wage earner may be unaware of misuses of his union pension fund. The investor may be unaware of stock market manipulations resulting from massive purchases and/or sales of securities by organized crime syndicates. The taxpayer is unaware of the revenue losses from organized criminal activity which his taxes must make up. The ghetto resident who looks upon the numbers game as an opportunity to escape poverty fails to realize that organized crime drains millions of dollars each year from the poor through this operation.

Organized crime cannot be tolerated. Effective action can curtail its activities and minimize its impact. Ultimately, we must eradicate organized crime. I believe the responsibility for sustained efforts against organized crime rests on all government-local, State, and Federal. All levels of government must move in concert, with full coordination and cooperation, to deal with this problem.

Before discussing the Federal law enforcement effort, I would like to briefly discuss the problems of our State and local governments and how the Department of Justice plans to assist them. Our State and

local police and prosecutors are the Nation's first line of law enforcement. Most State and local police forces do not, however, possess the capability for dealing effectively with organized crime. Money and manpower shortages severely restrict their ability to handle complex and complicated organized crime cases. I believe that the Department of Justice principally through the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration-can serve as a catalyst in improving the capability of State and local law enforcement for dealing with the problems of organized crime. By way of example:

We will offer the State and local governments the experience and benefits of tested programs, those that have proven successful in fighting organized crime.

We will develop model organized crime control laws for the States and urge their adoption.

We will support and assist in the recruitment and training of special organized crime investigators, prosecutors, accountants, statisticians, and other necessary technical personnel.

We will assist in establishing statewide organized crime investigative and prosecutorial units, whose expertise will also be available to local prosecutors and police.

We will assist in developing strategic and tactical intelligence units and, wherever appropriate, make our intelligence available. Let me emphasize that we do not plan to dictate, rather we hope to assist the State and local governments in improving their capabilities for dealing with organized crime. I am pleased to report that activity in this area has commenced through liaison with the State and local governments.

I would now like to focus on the role of Federal law enforcement in controlling organized crime.

One of my first actions as Attorney General was the commencement of a full analysis and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Federal effort against organized crime. This top-priority study will be completed shortly and, upon completion, I plan to make recommendations to the President. Until our evaluations are completed, I believe it is inappropriate for me to talk specifics. Nevertheless, I would like to highlight for the subcommittee some of the areas of activity and operation under review.

Organized crime operates on a, national and international scale. Since its activities pose an ever-present danger to the security, peace, and general welfare of the Nation, the powers of the Federal Government have been invoked to deal with this threat. Our authority to deal with this problem, of course, stems from the statutory jurisdiction and authority given us by the Congress. Accordingly, our review of the Federal effort against organized crime has sought answers to such questions as:

How can we make a maximum utilization of our authorized money and manpower to fight organized crime?

What priorities should guide our drive against organized crime?

What do we need to make our Federal attack against organized crime more effective?

The dimensions and diversity of the problems posed by organized crime demand that not only the Department of Justice mount, main

tain, and coordinate a program against this national enemy, but that all Federal investigative agencies cooperate in this effort. The Treasury Department-with such units as the Internal Revenue Service, the Customs Bureau, and the Secret Service-the Labor Department, the Post Office Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and many others, have all rendered superb assistance to the Department of Justice in this regard in the past. I have been meeting with the heads of these departments and agencies to determine how we can maximize and better coordinate our combined Federal efforts. The President has directed that all appropriate entities of the Federal Government cooperate in this undertaking.

The Department of Justice, through the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division, coordinates the efforts of the Federal agencies directed at organized crime. The Organized Crime and Racketeering Section is the focal center of the Federal effort against organized crime. Funds are available in the last appropriation for 66 attorneys for this section, but demands have necessitated the detailing of 11 additional Department attorneys to the program. We are reviewing the manpower needs of this vital operation and will present our findings to the President so that an appropriate request for funds and authority may be presented to Congress.

We are also examining the organization of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section to determine if its structure produces maximum efficiency. The principal operating entities or units within the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section are the strike forces and the area coordinators. Let me briefly outline their operations.

The strike force concept is bottomed on the view that a highly effective investigative effort can be achieved if investigators from different government agencies work together as a team. A strike force composed of experienced supervisory investigators and attorneys, concentrating their efforts on a single, identified Cosa Nostra family, can accomplish more than the loosely coordinated effort of the different agencies operating through routine and established practices. Central to the strike force design is the concept of mutual planning, based on combined intelligence and pooled experience. Participants in the project have the dual function of participating in the formulation of the group's strategy and coordinating the implementation of that strategy by their agency. In effect, each participant is a conduit for the dissemination of intelligence information to and from his agency for the other participants. Additionally, the agency representative insures that the group acts in compliance with the internal regulations of his agency. It is of paramount importance to the project that assigned members must be of supervisory level. Each participant must be able to secure the unqualified cooperation of his agency's local office, and to make or obtain high level decisions on the conduct of investigations by local or field personnel of his agency.

The strike force approach is being implemented by the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section through the cooperation of various Federal law enforcement agencies in assigning investigators to the team and allowing them to work exclusively on the project. Several investigative agencies-the FBI, the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division and the Intelligence Division of the Internal Revenue Service, the Office of Labor Management and Welfare Pension Reports of the Department of Labor, and the Secret Service-furnish the project with high ranking and highly skilled personnel. We have under consideration additional means by which the strike force approach can be made even more effective.

Because, currently, we do not have the manpower to make an across-the-board attack on organized crime in all American cities, strike forces can only be deployed in cities where the problem is most acute. We are examining the possibilities of establishing regional field offices that can assist the State and local authorities on a day-to-day basis and thereby institutionalize the strike force effort. To further assist the State and local governments we are considering establishing a training unit to work with State law enforcement officials who wish to create State organized crime and racketeering offices within their jurisdictions.

Area coordinators of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section initiate and coordinate the investigation and prosecution of organized crime cases in those geographical areas of the country which are not under attack by the strike force. The area coordinator must be an experienced Federal prosecutor capable of analyzing intelligence reports and conducting grand jury investigations and trials in conjunction with the U.S. attorneys. He must, at frequent intervals, visit the area under investigation to become familiar with the racketeering situation and to establish and maintain close liaison with other Federal investigative offices and with the area's U.S. attorney. We are reviewing areas under present assignment to determine if these problem areas are being adequately covered and if a sufficient number of personnel are assigned to these activities.

The size of La Cosa Nostra, its wide geographical distribution, its varied activities both legal and illegal, and its enormous financial resources make the investigation of its members and activities an awesome task. The fact that often in organized crime activities there is no "complainant" further increases this problem and distinguishes the investigation of organized crime cases from the investigation of ordinary "street crimes," such as rape, robbery, and theft. The difference is that in the investigation of the "street crime" the investigator usually begins with a "complainant" who subsequently will be a witness, although at times reluctantly. Also, there are usually observers of the "street crime" who can be expected to testify.