The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) was established in 1974 in response to a study by the Justice Management Division of the U.S. Department of Justice entitled, "A Secure Border." Recommendation number 7 of this study suggested the establishment of a southwest border intelligence center to be led by the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

(DEA) and staffed by representatives of that agency, as well as the

U.S. Customs Service The United States Customs Service was the very first federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected border security duties, as well as conducted c ...

. The initial focus of the Center was to assist in the identification of

drug traffickers The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

and alien traffickers along the U.S.-Mexico border. EPIC is now staffed with over 300 personnel and liaison officers from 15 agencies. The current EPIC facility was dedicated on 22 February 1989 in memory of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena-Salazar who was slain in the line of duty while conducting an undercover operation in Mexico. Expanded in 1998–1999, EPIC headquarters lies within

Biggs Army Airfield Biggs Army Airfield (formerly Biggs Air Force Base) is a United States Army military airbase located on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. History Biggs Field/Biggs Army Airfield (1916–47) On 15 June 1919, following an attack b ...

Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...

military reservation in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

and is run jointly by the DEA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...

(DHS). In the pre-DHS era, the three main federal agencies at EPIC were DEA, the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS ...

(INS) and the U.S. Customs Service.

External links

* Drug Enforcement Administration Organizations based in El Paso, Texas Fort Bliss {{US-gov-stub