IV
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 179
Concerning the case of Joseph Occhipinti.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 10, 1993
Mr. TRAFICANT submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Concerning the case of Joseph Occhipinti.
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, during his 16 years as a Federal
agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
risked his life in pursuit of his duties on a regular basis
and in so doing became the most highly decorated Fed-
eral agent in United States history, earning 78 com-
mendations and three Attorney General awards for valor
and merit;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti entered Federal law enforcement
in 1972 as a United States Customs Service agent, and,
after five years of investigating drug trafficking and or-
ganized crime, compiled the highest arrest record in the
history of the United States Customs Service;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, upon transferring from the
United States Customs Service to the Immigration and
HCON 179 IH
Naturalization Service in 1976, began investigating a
crime syndicate organized by criminal conspirators from
the Dominican Republic that operated in New York and
provided counterfeit green cards for illegal aliens as well
as established an illegal drug distribution and retailing
network that recruited and trained children as young as
12 years old to act as drug dealers, couriers, smugglers,
and crackhouse managers for the Columbian drug cartels;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti’s investigative work, much of
which was conducted undercover and at great personal
risk, exposed a conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000
counterfeit green cards, led to the arrest and conviction
of document counterfeiters, resulted in the seizure of 62
pounds of cocaine from the Dulce Llaverias drug cartel,
caused the arrest and conviction of over 40 organized
crime figures, and resulted in his being named Immigra-
tion and Naturalization Service Chief of the New York
Area Anti-Smuggling Unit;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti developed ‘‘Project Intercept,’’ a
multi-agency anti-drug task force that included personnel
from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Drug
Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Internal Revenue Service, State Department, and the
District Attorney’s office, that was put together to detain
illegal and documented aliens involved in drug-related
courier activity that resulted in 75 arrests, prosecutions
and convictions;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, after being ordered by his superi-
ors to abandon ‘‘Project Intercept,’’ exposed and gained
indictments and convictions of private vendors working
under contract with the Immigration and Naturalization
Service to handle the return of illegal aliens to their na-
HCON 179 IH
tions of origin who, through widespread corruption, ex-
tortion and smuggling, for a price released deportees and
allowed them to stay illegally in the United States;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, in 1988, was asked by the New
York City Police Department’s Chief of Detectives to
launch an investigation of the murder of New York City
Police Officer Michael Buczek by feuding drug gangs, an
investigation that led to the initiation of ‘‘Project
Bodega’’ by Joseph Occhipinti, which ultimately led to
the positive identification of the murderer of Officer
Buczek;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, through ‘‘Project Bodega,’’ again
headed a team of law enforcement personnel from Fed-
eral and local law enforcement agencies to identify a dis-
tribution network for counterfeit green cards, illegal tele-
phone blue boxes which allow users to make illegal inter-
national telephone calls, illegal firearms, illegal drugs,
gambling material, fencing of stolen U.S. Treasury
checks, and laundering of drug cartel money through cor-
ner grocery stores called ‘‘bodegas’’ operated throughout
the Washington Heights section of Manhattan by natives
of the Dominican Republic;
Whereas ‘‘Project Bodega’’ resulted in the arrest of 62 illegal
aliens and 39 other individuals engaged in illegal activity;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, through ‘‘Project Bodega,’’ un-
covered evidence of a former Federal prosecutor on the
payroll of a known Dominican drug lord who allegedly
used his former position and contacts as a Federal pros-
ecutor to corrupt other Federal prosecutors, and, as a re-
sult of this information, Joseph Occhipinti initiated
‘‘Project Esquire’’ to fully investigate the allegations of
HCON 179 IH
corruption of Federal prosecutors in the New York City
area;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti was ordered by his superiors to
terminate ‘‘Project Esquire’’ and shortly thereafter found
himself accused of civil rights violations by the Federa-
tion of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists which
claimed that Joseph Occhipinti failed to secure consen-
sual search permission in the course of ‘‘Project Bodega’’
investigations, an allegation that forced the highly suc-
cessful ‘‘Project Bodega’’ to be terminated;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti was indicted in Federal court for
allegedly conducting 12 illegal searches during ‘‘Project
Bodega’’;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti’s lawyers produced 55 audio tapes
that supplied evidence that the witnesses who testified
against him were in fact engaged in criminal activities
and that the allegations lodged against Joseph Occhipinti
were part of a deliberate conspiracy by the Federation of
Dominican Merchants and Industrialists to shut down
‘‘Project Bodega’’;
Whereas the 55 audio tapes produced by Joseph Occhipinti’s
lawyers were seized by the court and barred from admis-
sion into evidence during Joseph Occhipinti’s trial;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti’s defense attorney, during Mr.
Occhipinti’s trial, was under heavy medication for a nerv-
ous breakdown and exhibited overt suicidal tendencies,
unsuccessfully 
petitioned 
the 
court 
to 
allow 
Mr.
Occhipinti to obtain new counsel;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti, having been denied competent
counsel and the opportunity to introduce evidence critical
to his defense, was subsequently convicted of civil rights
HCON 179 IH
violations stemming from ‘‘Project Bodega’’ and was sen-
tenced to 37 months in prison;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti’s trial and conviction have been
the subject of independent investigations by local and
Federal elected officials, and local media, which have un-
covered evidence that key witnesses that testified against
Mr. Occhipinti were in fact engaged in criminal activities,
perjured themselves during Mr. Occhipinti’s trial, and
that two of the witnesses were paid $20,000 by the Fed-
eration of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists to
perjure their testimony;
Whereas Joseph Occhipinti had, on his own behalf, an affida-
vit filed by former El Diario newspaper editor Manuel De
Dios which stated that numerous members of the Federa-
tion of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists supplied
fraudulent complaints and provided perjured testimony
against Mr. Occhipinti out of fear that Dominican drug
lords would kill them and their families, and, shortly
after providing this affidavit to Staten Island, New York
Borough President Guy Molinari, Manuel De Dios was
murdered;
Whereas the conviction of Joseph Occhipinti has sent a
chilling message to all law enforcement officers across the
country that organized crime is still powerful enough to
silence, ruin and retaliate against a zealous, courageous
and effective law enforcement agent; and
Whereas as long as the many unresolved questions surround-
ing Joseph Occhipinti’s case remain unanswered, his case
will continue to be perceived by America’s law enforce-
ment community as an example of the untouchable power
of organized crime and drug traffickers in the United
States: Now, therefore, be it
HCON 179 IH
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—
(1) the United States Attorney General appoint
a special prosecutor to investigate all allegations of
a drug cartel inspired conspiracy against Joseph
Occhipinti, and to determine whether or not Joseph
Occhipinti’s conviction was justified, whether or not
there was perjured testimony, organized crime coer-
cion of witnesses, and possible prosecutorial mis-
conduct; and
(2) if the aforementioned investigation finds
that Joseph Occhipinti was unjustly convicted and
was in fact the victim of a drug cartel inspired con-
spiracy, then the President of the United States
should grant Joseph Occhipinti a full and complete
pardon, and restore Joseph Occhipinti to his position
within the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Æ