NEWARK, NJ—Members of the FBI Newark Field Office’s Atlantic City Public Corruption Task Force and South Jersey Violent Incident Task Force were honored today by the New Jersey Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association (NJNEOA). The Atlantic City Resident Agency is the UNIT Award Recipient for the “Operation Boardwalk Empire,” an investigation that resulted in 23 arrests and included law enforcement partners from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, New Jersey State Police, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, officers with the Atlantic City, Northfield, Ventnor City, and Millville Police Departments, and the Cumberland County Sherriff’s Office.

“Boardwalk Empire” was a long-term, transnational Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) case that targeted several large-scale drug traffickers—in Atlantic City and the surrounding southern New Jersey area—who were directly supplied by the Sinaloa cartel, one of the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the Western Hemisphere.

“Cases like this are the reason we, in the FBI, come to work every day,” said Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch, Jr. “The mission to keep the public safe and uphold the Constitution of the United States is rewarding enough. But when an operation involves such critical and symbiotic collaboration among law enforcement partners—as this one did—it’s only fitting that the collaboration, itself, be recognized.”

As a result of the investigation and prosecution, 23 subjects pleaded guilty to charges that included: drug trafficking, money laundering, structuring, firearms trafficking, making false statements to the FBI, and related offenses. The investigation involved the execution of more than 20 search warrants, and the seizure of millions of dollars in cash and assets—including properties, cars, and three bank accounts. Subjects received lengthy federal prison sentences.