ABSTRACT
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is an awkward organization. It has enforcement responsibilities – premised on the use of specific items for criminal activities – which often put it in direct conflict with agencies responsible for disrupting the actors who are using those items in furtherance of illicit activity. During the 1980s, the ATF became involved with the United States’ war on drugs. The ATF also became involved with counterterrorism efforts. As early as 1981, the ATF was dedicating personnel to monitor terrorist and extremist matters. In addition to its explosives and firearms expertise, ATF brought its authority for tobacco-related crimes to bear in disrupting terrorists’ use of bootlegged cigarette-derived financing. ATF, as an investigatory agency, currently creates unnecessary complications in the domestic setting. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement focus on the threat actors who engage in trafficking the illicit commodities around which ATF’s identity revolves.
