Eastern District of North Carolina Environmental Crimes Initiative

A press release from an organization being formed to bring law enforcement groups together around environment crimes. Interesting.

RALEIGH – The Honorable Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney
General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division,
Department of Justice; the Honorable George E.B. Holding, United
States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Stacey
H. Mitchell, Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section for the
Environment and Natural Resources Division; and Banumathi
Rangarajan, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, along with representatives of 16
different federal and state law enforcement agencies, met in
Raleigh, North Carolina, today to commence work on a district-wide
environmental crimes initiative. The goal of this working group is
to improve cooperation and coordination among law enforcement
agencies at the federal, state, and local levels working
environmental crimes, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the
criminal justice system.

Assistant Attorney General Moreno, who was confirmed to the
position by the United States Senate on November 5, 2009, and has
over 19 years in the field of environmental and natural resources
law, addressed the group lending her support and demonstrating the
commitment of the Department of Justice to act to protect our
natural treasures.

“This task force will allow federal, state and local law
enforcement in North Carolina to achieve even greater protection of
the treasured environment of North Carolina through the joint
investigation and prosecution of environmental crimes,” said
Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice
Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “I commend
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for spearheading this effort and we at
the Justice Department look forward to working with the task force
on future environmental crime prosecutions.”
Reflecting upon the diverse and vast natural resources of
Eastern North Carolina, United States Attorney Holding commented,
“We are fortunate in our District to have an abundance of valuable
natural resources including the national seashore and several state
parks. The prosecution of environmental crimes affecting these
natural resources insures the health and welfare of our State’s
citizens.”

For the past 12 years, the Eastern District of North Carolina
and its law enforcement partners have prosecuted violations of the
Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Clean Air Act, and
the Act to Prevent Pollution for Ships as well as violations of the
various federal wildlife laws. Mr. Holding continued, “It is our
hope that by bringing those law enforcement partners together — to
share resources and expertise — that we can continue to protect
both the citizens and natural resources of North Carolina.”
“The formation of the EDNC Task Force is a textbook example of
how EPA works with its federal, state and local law enforcement
partners to protect the public and the environment,” said Maureen
O’ Mara, Special Agent-in-Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement
program in Atlanta. “It sends a clear message to potential
violators that environmental crimes in this district will be
investigated and prosecuted.”

PDF copy of this press release