NATIONAL 

INTERDICTION

COMMAND AND

CONTROL PLAN 

Office of National Drug Control Policy 

FEBRUARY 2020
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NATIONAL INTERDICTION COMMAND AND CONTROL PLAN

INTRODUCTION

As stated in the 2020 National Drug Control Strategy (Strategy), the illicit drugs causing American deaths 

are almost entirely produced outside the United States, and they are delivered to our citizens through 

a variety of means and routes. Transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are criminal organizations 

whose preponderant activity and significant source of revenue is the production and trafficking of 

drugs. The consequences in terms of corruption, criminality, drug dependency, drug-related overdoses 

and deaths, and the billions of dollars lost due to crime, decreased work productivity, and increased 

health care costs, present a clear national security threat to the United States. 

Drug trafficking organizations vary in structure, from the organized crime hierarchy of a transnational 

drug cartel, to the flat organization of an anonymized Internet distribution scheme. To reach American 

drug users, TCOs extend their influence into the United States, collaborate with domestic criminal 

groups, and use multiple transit routes to include exploiting our mail and express consignment delivery 

systems. These criminal organizations employ ever-changing tactics, evolving technologies, and 

varying methods to protect and further their criminal enterprises. However, at all stages along their 

transportation and delivery routes, international criminals and their illicit drugs, illicit proceeds, and 

weapons are vulnerable to interdiction. 

The National Interdiction Command and Control Plan (Plan) outlines the Trump Administration’s 

interdiction strategy to reduce the availability of illicit drugs in the United States. Flowing from the 

availability reduction line of effort set forth in the Administration’s Strategy, the Plan provides strategic 

guidance to National Drug Control Program Agencies (NDCPAs) and other relevant agencies regarding 

interdiction efforts to disrupt TCOs that traffic drugs to the United States. The Plan focuses on coordinated 

interdiction efforts by Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial agencies, and promotes strengthened 

collaboration with our international partners to maximize the impact of each interdiction event.

Synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamines, and plant-based 

drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, all of which are primarily produced outside the United States, are 

the principal illicit drugs killing Americans. TCOs oversee the production of these illicit drugs in source 

zones outside the United States, coordinate their sale with retail distributers, package them, transport 

them from their source countries to the arrival zones near our borders, and then move them across 

our borders and through our ports of entry for domestic distribution or further transshipment to other 

destination countries. 

From South America, TCOs use maritime and air routes to transport bulk quantities of illicit drugs across 

the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean to the United States or to transshipment points in Mexico, 

Central America, or the Caribbean. Further, TCOs oversee the construction and use of a wide range of 

conveyances, to include semi-submersible and low-profile go-fast vessels for single shipments of multiton quantities of cocaine. They also use containerized commercial shipping to transport precursor 

chemicals for the processing of plant-based drugs or the manufacture of synthetic drugs, as well as to 
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smuggle illicit drugs mislabeled and disguised as lawful cargo. Moreover, TCOs and individual sellers 

use the mail and express consignment delivery systems to smuggle synthetic opioids through our ports 

of entry. Larger quantities of synthetic opioids are typically discovered at land and sea ports of entry. 

Within our borders, drug traffickers exploit our highways, railways, and airspace, as well as our domestic 

postal and express consignment systems to deliver illicit drugs to individual buyers throughout the 

Nation. 

Drug traffickers move and conceal the proceeds from their illicit activities in the form of bulk currency 

and cryptocurrency, and launder illicit proceeds through sophisticated methods involving legitimate 

trade, business, and real estate. Further, these violent criminal organizations move and use firearms, 

ammunition, and explosives to protect their trafficking routes, drug-processing locations, geographic 

drug-trafficking areas, and illicit profits. 

To reduce the availability of illicit drugs in our communities, the Plan focuses on attacking the 

vulnerabilities of drug networks through coordinated interdiction efforts at their point of production and 

at all points along their transportation routes. The Plan calls for improved coordination of interdiction 

and investigation efforts in order to maximize the disruptive impact on those individuals and criminal 

organizations who target Americans with illicit drugs. 

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND LINES OF EFFORT

This Plan is focused on one overarching strategic outcome:

Drastically reducing the number of Americans losing their lives to drug addiction by 

significantly decreasing the availability of illicit drugs in America’s communities. This will 

be done by focusing interdiction efforts on targeting specific drug transportation routes 

and modalities, by countering criminal drug traffickers, and by strengthening the network 

of domestic and international law enforcement partners focused on interdiction and 

counterdrug efforts.

To achieve this outcome, the Plan guides the United States’ interdiction efforts in support of the 

Strategy’s line of effort to reduce availability of illicit drugs in the United States. The Strategy’s availability 

reduction line of effort consists of nine subordinate lines of effort, which when grouped, form three 

principal focus areas:

Targeting Specific Drug Transportation Routes and Delivery Modalities

This line of effort includes actions to combat illicit Internet drug sales; to focus Federal 

Government efforts against illicit drug delivery through the mail and express consignment 

networks; and to interdict flow of illicit drugs across physical borders into the United States. 
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Countering Criminal Drug Traffickers

This line of effort includes activities focused on disrupting, dismantling, and defeating drug 

traffickers and their supply chains; interrupting the financial activities of drug traffickers; 

and disrupting and dismantling illicit drug production infrastructure.

Strengthening the Network of Domestic and International Partners Focused 

on Interdiction and on Law Enforcement Counterdrug Efforts

This line of effort includes working with international partners; leveraging the capabilities 

of multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task-force programs; and enhancing law-enforcement 

capacity.

These three focus areas are not hierarchical; instead, the focus areas are complementary and, when 

addressed equally, will create synergistic results across all geographic regions. 

STRATEGIC ASSUMPTIONS

The Plan requires NDCPAs, along with other relevant Federal agencies and departments, to develop 

and coordinate their counterdrug efforts in order to maximize the effectiveness of interdictions in 

support of the Strategy’s availability reduction line of effort. To support that, the Plan makes several 

key assumptions:

•	 Reducing the availability of illicit drugs in the United States by disrupting the illicit drug supply 

chain will relieve pressure on our public health efforts, allowing our historic effort to prevent 

drug use and increase the availability of treatment to take hold, and increasing the potential 

sustainable success over time.

•	 Aggressive and versatile drug trafficking organizations will respond to sustained pressure 

placed upon them by disruption, dismantlement, interdiction efforts, and judicial/prosecutorial 

efforts, and will adapt their production and trafficking methods to minimize risk and maximize 

profit.

•	 TCOs are vulnerable to interdiction efforts by United States and partner nations at all points 

along their transportation and delivery routes.

•	 Interdiction of illicit drugs, drug proceeds, and weapons disrupts and degrades the ability of 

TCOs to deliver illicit drugs and profit from them.

•	 Interdictions directly support coordinated multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction criminal enterprise 

investigations and prosecutions, which are the most effective means to disrupt and dismantle 

TCOs.
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•	 Fulsome and appropriate information- and intelligence- sharing among and between the 

NDCPAs, other relevant agencies and departments, and foreign partners will maximize the 

effectiveness of our collective interdiction efforts.

•	 The United States and like-minded states will continue to work in partnership to enhance 

interdiction operations through extensive law enforcement collaboration, including risk 

assessment and analysis, incident management, and coordinated messaging.

PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

The Plan is not intended to list every activity the Federal Government and key stakeholders must enact 

in order to achieve the strategic objectives. Rather, it articulates the Administration’s priorities for the 

interdiction of illicit drugs, illicit drug proceeds, and stopping the flow of the weapons used to facilitate 

drug trafficking. The Plan provides the strategic guidance NDCPAs and other Federal departments and 

agencies require to develop their own interdiction plans and strategies. Further, the Plan ensures that 

programming and resource decisions about the allocation of Federal drug control funds and resources 

are made in a manner that is consistent with the Strategy and Administration priorities. 

In constructing counterdrug plans and strategies that address emerging and changing drug threats, 

NDCPAs’ counterdrug plans should leverage their complete authorities in order to maximize the 

performance and effectiveness of existing capabilities, and to develop additional capabilities to drive 

effective and coordinated judicial and non-judicial interdiction outcomes. Each plan shall give priority 

to disrupting and dismantling those TCOs identified as presenting the most significant drug trafficking 

threats to the United States, and their efforts shall support this priority and judicial outcomes. As part of 

their plans, NDCPAs and departments shall also identify gaps in capabilities and resource requirements 

needed for them to fully support the Strategy’s availability reduction mission. Resource requirements 

needed to address identified gaps should be submitted for consideration through the President’s budget 

development process. Gaps that cannot be solved through the budget development process should be 

communicated in writing to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

To support the Strategy’s availability reduction mandate, the Plan guides interdiction efforts in a 

geographically layered and interconnected approach. The interdiction mission is executed with 

international partners beyond the borders of the United States, as we work to seize or destroy drugs in 

source countries and in the transit zone, as well as in the arrival zone and at our physical border regions 

by domestic agencies and cross-border partner nations. Inside our borders, Federal, State, local, tribal, 

and territorial law enforcement agencies interdict illicit and dangerous drugs, drug proceeds, precursor 

chemicals, and weapons every day. Accordingly, the Plan guides interdiction efforts in the following 

geographic areas of operation: Beyond the Borders, The Border Regions, and Inside the Borders.
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Beyond the Borders

Targeting Specific Drug Transportation Routes and Delivery Modalities

TCOs oversee the production of illicit drugs in source zones outside the United States and transport 

them from their source countries to the arrival zones near our borders. From South America, TCOs 

use maritime and air routes to transport bulk quantities of illicit drugs to the United States or to 

transshipment points in Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean. From Asia, Europe, and elsewhere 

around the globe, TCOs and individual sellers use the Internet and mail and express consignment 

delivery systems to smuggle all quantities of illicit synthetic drugs to the United States.

Maritime and air interdiction agencies shall continue to work with established task forces and with 

our international partners to detect, monitor, and interdict drug loads bound for the United States. 

Particular emphasis shall be placed on developing capabilities to monitor commercial and containerized 

shipping to identify illicit drug and precursor chemical shipments for interdiction. The integration of 

containerized shipping data into established multi-agency fusion centers and joint interagency task 

forces data centers shall be established to further enhance our ability to identify and interdict drug loads 

and investigate the connected TCOs. NDCPAs shall continue to develop and employ new and improved 

technologies to detect and monitor the movement of illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, weapons, and 

illicit proceeds through the transit zone, and shall consult with stakeholders to coordinate interdiction 

efforts with international partners.

The use of the Internet to market, order, and pay for drugs is a significant threat. A significant number 

of drug users and domestic drug dealers now order synthetic and other dangerous drugs from foreign 

sources from the privacy of their homes and receive their illicit drugs via mail or express consignment. 

NDCPAs shall continue to develop and improve technological capabilities to investigate and exploit 

Internet drug trafficking and money laundering networks. United States diplomatic efforts shall focus 

on expanding law enforcement cooperation with China and other source and transshipment countries 

to identify traffickers that use the Internet and to share law enforcement and intelligence information to 

identify and interdict drug shipments in the international mail and express consignment systems before 

they reach the United States.

Countering Criminal Drug Traffickers

Drug trafficking organizations not only threaten the safety, health, and security of the United States, but 

also present both real and continuous threats to our international partners in their own countries as 

well. The Federal Government will continue to work with international partners in source countries and 

transit zones to maximize interdiction efforts. Continued efforts with international partners to eradicate 

illicit drug crops and dismantle illicit drug laboratories, interdict illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, drug 

proceeds, and weapons, and the implementation of comprehensive alternative development programs 

will degrade drug traffickers’ ability to supply illicit drug markets inside the United States. Diplomatic 
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efforts shall continue to focus on encouraging partner nations to fight the corruption that facilitates drug 

trafficking and assisting partner nations to build their own capacity to interdict drugs and precursor 

chemicals, to seize drug proceeds, to collect and share evidence with United States Government 

agencies, and to successfully prosecute drug traffickers. 

NDCPAs and other relevant Federal agencies and departments shall continue to work with established 

Federal multi-agency task force programs and joint interagency task forces to expand and improve 

information-sharing to more rapidly connect interdiction events to criminal enterprise investigations 

and to leverage all sources of information to inform the interdiction targeting process. Interdiction of 

bulk currency, in conjunction with financial investigations of drug money laundering networks, disrupts 

the financial activities of drug traffickers and shall be part of NDCPA interdiction strategies and plans. 

The pursuit of TCO financiers in money laundering investigations in accordance with anti-money 

laundering laws and in conjunction with Federal multi-agency task force programs and joint interagency 

task forces disrupts and dismantles illicit financial networks, degrading TCOs. NDCPAs shall continue to 

investigate and target the international movement of cryptocurrencies and other emerging methods of 

value transfer used by drug traffickers.

Strengthening the Network of Domestic and International Partners Focused on 

Interdiction and on Law Enforcement Counterdrug Efforts

Since the threat posed by cocaine from South America was recognized in the 1970s, the United States has 

developed strong counterdrug relationships with our partner nations in the Western Hemisphere. More 

recently, synthetic opioids from Asia have emerged as the most lethal illicit drug threat to Americans. 

Accordingly, as we maintain and strengthen our relationships with our partners in the Americas, the 

United States must also continue to strengthen our counterdrug relationships with China and other 

source countries for opioids and precursor chemicals. Partner nation efforts, which continue to expand 

across eradication, interdiction, and prosecution, are vital to eliminating the scourge of illicit trafficking 

that threatens the Western Hemisphere. Building and reinforcing successful programs and partnerships 

will continue to be paramount for operations Beyond the Border. Federal Government efforts will focus 

on developing and supporting necessary partner-nation drug control, interdiction, and eradication 

capabilities, and will also focus upon expanding two-way information-sharing efforts with partner 

nations and international organizations to more fully support interdiction and eradication efforts. 

Diplomatic efforts will also aim to build the capabilities to investigate and prosecute crimes in order to 

disrupt drug trafficking and criminal recidivism. These efforts shall focus on partnerships with nations 

that are aligned with United States counterdrug interests, and that focus on those drug trafficking 

networks that transport illicit and dangerous drugs to the United States. As Mexican TCOs continue to 

develop synthetic opioid production capabilities, and Mexico increasingly becomes a source country 

for synthetic opioids, we must strengthen our interdiction network’s ability to identify and interdict 

shipments of precursor chemicals from Asia to Mexico, Colombia, and Central America. 

NDCPAs shall continue to work with Federal multi-agency law enforcement task force programs and our 
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joint interagency task forces to appropriately expand collaboration with international partners through 

coordinated operations to improve priority targeting and to maximize the impact of interdictions on the 

TCOs that transport drugs to the United States. NDCPAs shall continue to develop evidence collection 

and analysis capabilities to more timely integrate evidence from interdiction events to support 

coordinated enterprise investigations and prosecutions of TCOs. Diplomatic efforts will continue to 

ensure our international partners collect and share this evidence to support Federal cases, as well 

as investigate and prosecute drug trafficking. Additionally, Federal departments and agencies shall 

explore and develop technologies and invest in equipment to enhance our ability and capacity to detect 

and identify drugs, and to enhance our ability to monitor drug shipments for interdiction.

The Border Regions

Targeting Specific Drug Transportation Routes and Delivery Modalities

As required by Congress, three border-specific strategies shall further guide Federal interdiction efforts 

in their defined border regions. The Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, the Northern Border 

Counternarcotics Strategy, and the Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy provide more focused 

strategic guidance regarding interdiction efforts along our shared borders and maritime pathways. 

These strategies are nested under this Plan and the Strategy, and they further guide our border and 

maritime efforts in support of the Administration’s availability reduction lines of effort. The individual 

border strategies address specific challenges presented by the different borders, such as underground 

tunnels at the Southwest Border and cross-border tribal lands at the Northern Border. The Caribbean 

Border Counternarcotics Strategy, when released, shall address the specific interdiction and law 

enforcement challenges presented by TCOs exploiting sea and air smuggling routes in the Caribbean 

Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Countering Criminal Drug Traffickers 

The United States will continue to work with the governments of Mexico and Canada to combat those 

TCOs that threaten the mutual safety and security of our nations. Cocaine, heroin, and synthetic 

drugs cross our Southwest Border for distribution inside the United States, and some of those drugs 

are transshipped through the United States and smuggled across the Northern Border into Canada. 

Precursor chemicals, weapons, and illicit proceeds, in the form of bulk currency, are smuggled from 

the United States across the Southwest Border into Mexico. On the Northern Border, bulk currency and 

synthetic drugs cross into the United States.

Mexican TCOs pose the dominant drug threat to the United States, as they move Colombian cocaine 

and Mexican heroin, methamphetamines, and synthetic opioids across the Southwest Border into 

the United States. Mexican TCOs have networks that reach across the United States to supply local 

drug dealers and gangs located throughout the nation. Moreover, Mexican TCOs supply cocaine and 

methamphetamines to criminal biker gangs in Canada. Asian drug trafficking networks that operate in 

Canada also smuggle synthetic drugs into the United States across the Northern Border. 
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To effectively interrupt drug traffickers’ supply chains, NDCPAs’ border interdiction efforts will focus 

on both inbound and outbound contraband. Interdiction of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals 

directly impact traffickers’ supply chains. Additionally, interdiction efforts will focus on seizing parts, 

subassemblies, or fully assembled weapons; pill presses; and other instruments of drug production 

to disrupt the infrastructure of TCOs. Interdiction efforts will also target bulk currency shipments and 

trade-based money-laundering instruments to disrupt traffickers’ financial activities. NDCPAs shall 

continue to participate in multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task force programs to fully share information 

from, and between, interdiction and investigation agencies. NDCPAs shall make every effort to link 

border interdictions to enterprise investigations as quickly as possible in order to further disrupt illicit 

trafficking networks.

Strengthening the Network of Domestic and International Partners Focused on 

Interdiction and on Law Enforcement Counterdrug Efforts 

The United States will continue to focus its diplomatic efforts with Mexico and Canada to strengthen our 

partnerships and expand our ability to conduct coordinated interdictions that maximize the disruptive 

effects on the drug trafficking operations of TCOs. Diplomatic efforts will also focus on developing and 

supporting partner nation interdiction and eradication capabilities, as well as expanding informationsharing efforts with partner nations and international organizations in support of identification, 

investigation, interdiction, eradication and prosecution efforts. NDCPAs shall leverage participation 

in multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task force programs to facilitate and expand information-sharing 

between and among themselves, with our border nation partners, and with domestic State, local, and 

tribal agencies. Timely analysis and integration of evidence and information from border interdiction 

events into investigative efforts shall expand criminal enterprise investigations of TCOs and maximize 

their disruptive effects. Diplomatic efforts will continue to ensure our international partners collect and 

share this evidence to support United States cases as well as investigate and prosecute drug trafficking. 

Fulsome and timely information-sharing shall also facilitate targeted interdictions from evidence and 

leads obtained from enterprise investigations.

NDCPAs shall develop and leverage technologies to improve drug detection and identification 

capabilities at our borders and ports of entry. Federal agencies shall work together to identify and 

share existing technologies that may be leveraged to support the counterdrug interdiction mission set 

forth in the Strategy and this Plan. The development and use of new technologies, along with physical 

barriers and the coordinated detection, interdiction, and investigative efforts, shall be elements of the 

drug interdiction plans.
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Inside the Borders

Targeting Specific Drug Transportation Routes and Delivery Modalities

Drug traffickers exploit our highways, railways, and airspace, as well as our postal and express 

consignment systems inside the United States. State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement 

authorities are the primary drug interdiction force inside our borders. Interdiction of lethal narcotics 

serves an important and separate public safety interest beyond the benefits that it provides to law 

enforcement activity. Drug traffickers sending deadly narcotics such as fentanyl through public and 

private carriers – and particularly in the mail stream – present a significant public safety hazard and 

potential national security risk. In addition, failing to interdict these narcotics allows drug traffickers 

to place addictive and harmful drugs into the hands of those using illicit drugs and, particularly in the 

case of opioids, potential overdose victims. Interdicting these drugs is therefore a key public safety 

goal for the United States. There is a concurrent law enforcement interest in linking interdicted drug, 

bulk currency, and weapons to criminal enterprise investigations in order to disrupt and dismantle 

TCOs as rapidly as possible. To accomplish this, Federal, State, territorial, and local governments shall 

strengthen existing information and evidence sharing efforts and agreements and, when no such efforts 

and agreements exist, initiate new efforts and agreements.

Adaptive criminal networks have exploited the Internet to sell and deliver dangerous drugs directly to 

American citizens. Buyers can order dangerous drugs on both the clear and dark web, pay for their 

orders though web transactions and the use of cryptocurrencies, and receive drug deliveries to their 

homes by the postal or express consignment systems. Federal, State, territorial, and local agencies shall 

work together to target for interdiction those drug shipments delivered by parcel and mail services.

Agencies shall strengthen existing relationships and develop capabilities to conduct coordinated 

investigations of Internet drug sales and to disrupt and exploit the information of traffickers operating on 

the Internet. Partnerships with Federally funded research and development organizations, academia, 

and industry shall be leveraged in the effort to develop innovative technological solutions to the 

challenges posed by TCOs that change their tactics, techniques, and procedures to avoid interdiction 

and arrest.

Countering Criminal Drug Traffickers

Drug trafficking organizations operate for profit, and they employ production, transportation, 

distribution, and money laundering networks to realize their profits. These networks extend inside our 

borders, distributing dangerous drugs throughout the United States. State, territorial, local, and tribal 

law enforcement are the front-line interdiction agencies that seize most of the dangerous drugs that 

are domestically interdicted. Since most dangerous drugs are manufactured outside the United States, 

it is imperative that State, territorial, local, and tribal interdictions be linked as quickly as possible to 

criminal enterprise investigations of priority TCO drug threats to the United States. Accordingly, NDCPAs, 
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and other relevant Federal departments and agencies, shall strengthen and establish informationsharing protocols with State, territorial, local, and tribal agencies. Multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task 

force programs shall be leveraged to facilitate expanded information-sharing between interdiction and 

investigation agencies.

From the smuggling of bulk currency generated from retail sales, to the use of cryptocurrencies and 

complex money laundering schemes that use shell companies and numerous bank accounts, TCOs 

move illicit profits globally to buy product, supplies, and services and to pay conspirators. Interdiction 

of bulk currency plays an important role in limiting the ability of drug trafficking networks to resupply 

and operate, and Federal agencies shall focus their efforts on identifying bulk currency shipments for 

interdiction and linking bulk currency seizures to enterprise investigations. Detecting, degrading, and 

dismantling complex trade-based money laundering networks requires coordination and informationsharing from a multitude of entities including Federal, State, territorial, local, and tribal law enforcement 

agencies along with partner-nation agencies.

Synthetic drugs, such as opioids and methamphetamines, are vulnerable to the interdiction of required 

precursor chemicals needed to manufacture them. Preventing diversion and the interdiction of 

precursor chemicals, coupled with the dismantlement of the labs that produce illicit synthetic drugs, 

is a focus of the Administration’s counter-production efforts. While most seizures of illicit substances 

within the United States are of finished drugs, some precursor chemicals are transshipped through the 

United States from source countries. NDCPAs shall interdict precursor chemical shipments destined for 

illicit drug production inside or outside the United States.

Strengthening the Network of Domestic and International Partners Focused on 

Interdiction and on Law Enforcement Counterdrug Efforts

No single sovereign, department, or agency possesses all the authorities or capabilities needed to defeat 

TCOs. State, territorial, local, and tribal agencies are the predominant interdictors inside our borders, 

while Federal agencies are the primary investigators of TCOs. Accordingly, to combat drug trafficking 

networks that operate criminal enterprises across international and domestic jurisdictions, the Federal 

Government will leverage multi-agency task forces that can also operate across Federal, State, territorial, 

local, and tribal jurisdictions. Such task forces integrate the different authorities and capabilities of 

multiple agencies into a coordinated effort to defeat poly-crime drug trafficking networks, and they 

facilitate the sharing of information, evidence, and intelligence among and between law enforcement 

and other government agencies. To achieve the maximum effect from our interdiction efforts, the 

Administration will leverage multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task force programs to investigative and 

prosecute interdictions and to facilitate the sharing of evidence and information derived from such 

events. 

Successful interdiction of illicit drugs, illicit proceeds, and weapons requires building the tools, 

relationships, and capacity to address a constantly evolving set of criminal networks that adapt their 
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methods, change their tactics and techniques, and employ new technologies to avoid detection, 

interdiction, arrest, and prosecution. Law enforcement capacity cannot be static in a dynamic drug 

threat environment. Accordingly, agencies shall improve information- and intelligence-sharing with 

State, territorial, local, and tribal partners to target illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, illicit proceeds, 

and weapons for interdiction and to maximize the collection of evidence for use in prosecution. NDCPAs 

shall develop advanced drug detection technologies to be shared with domestic agency partners. Multiagency, multi-jurisdiction task force programs shall leverage their governance structures and resourcing 

capabilities to link and empower State, territorial, local, and tribal authorities to coordinate their 

enforcement efforts; to work as part of Federal task force teams; and to interdict drugs, bulk currency, 

and weapons. Federal law enforcement grant programs that fund counterdrug efforts shall require 

State, territorial, local, and tribal grant recipients to appropriately share interdiction and investigation 

information with multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction task force programs. Additionally, NDCPAs should 

increase their cooperation with the international and domestic private sectors to build awareness and 

support for preventing the exploitation of their enterprises by TCOs. 

GOALS AND BUDGET PROJECTIONS

Goals

Because this Plan is nested under the Strategy, and focuses on outlining a high-level approach rather 

than cataloguing all the key tasks and activities that organizations at the Federal, State, territorial, local, 

and tribal levels must take to reduce the availability of illicit drugs though interdiction, it is important 

to employ some broad goals to guide the Plan’s implementation and ensure its alignment with the 

Strategy. This will ensure that not only the broader policies, priorities, and objectives of NDCAs and 

interagency partners have taken to support the Plan and are adequately aligned with the Strategy, but 

will also serve to identify where a refinement of the Plan may be necessary. 

The Plan directly supports Goal 7, Goal 8, and Goal 9 of the Strategy. Assessing the sustained progress 

toward achieving those objectives, and realizing the related goals, is enabled by annual targets that will 

be continually assessed over a five-year period.1 

Projections for National Drug Control Program and Budget Priorities

The 2020 Strategy set policy goals and objectives for the Nation, along with associated performance 

measures and targets to achieve those goals and objectives. ONDCP considers the Strategy’s

projections for policy priorities to be the budget priorities because they indicate to the NDCPAs what 

the Administration’s long-term priorities are, and those agencies are expected to provide resources for 

those priorities over the course of the Administration. ONDCP’s funding guidance also establishes the 

budget priorities—for the current and future years—for NDCPAs to meet the performance targets and 

achieve the policy goals and objectives of both the Strategy and the Plan.

1 The NDCS’s accompanying Performance Reporting System contains each of the annual targets for each goal and 

a detailed description of how each was determined.
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Budget and Performance Summary

The FY2020 Budget and Performance Summary, published in May 2019, can be found at: 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FY-2020-Budget-and-Performance.pdf

ONDCP will release the National Drug Control Strategy:FY 2021 Budget and Performance Summary (Budget 

Summary) after the President’s proposed budget is released in early 2020. The Budget Summary contains 

information on the President’s FY 2021 drug control budget, as well as the enacted and actual funding 

levels for FY 2020 and FY 2019, by NDCPA and subordinate elements, as well as historical funding levels 

by function. Appendices contain information on the resources to support the National Drug Control 

Strategy Border Strategies and the National Treatment Plan. In addition, the Budget Summary provides 

a description of each agency’s mission, program descriptions, and significant changes in the FY 2021 

request compared to the FY 2020 enacted amount. The FY 2021 Budget Summary also contains details 

of each agency’s program performance metrics and a section on the assessment of the contribution of 

each NDCPA to achieving the goals and objectives of the Strategy.

CONCLUSION

This Plan does not enumerate every activity that NDCPAs, and other relevant Federal departments and 

agencies, must enact in order to achieve the strategic objectives. Agencies are empowered to create 

plans and strategies for the interdiction of illicit drugs, illicit drug proceeds, and weapons used to 

facilitate drug trafficking in support of the President’s mandate to reduce the availability of illicit and 

dangerous drugs in the United States. Agencies’ counterdrug programming and resource allocation 

decisions shall be made in a manner that is consistent with the Strategy, Administration priorities, and 

this Plan. Protecting the homeland from the drug threats that harm and kill United States citizens is 

the priority, and agencies’ counterdrug interdiction efforts shall be aimed at reducing the number of 

American deaths from drug overdoses.