SDN-27-Chain-Reaction-2010

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Operation Chain Reaction

US Drug Enforcement Agency

Heather Cox Richardson (and, CBS News)

Letters from an American
February 27, 2026

(lightly editted)

On Monday, February 23, 2026

Daniel Ruetenik
Pat Milton
Cara Tabachnick

all of CBS News, reported a newly uncovered document in the Epstein files.

DEA was running an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and fourteen other people for drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.

The investigation

2010-2015

Separate from the sex trafficking case under way when Epstein died - DEA began on December 17, 2010, under the Obama administration and was still operating in 2015.

A heavily redacted document in the Epstein files from the director of the DEA’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) said

DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the US Virgin Islands and New York City. The investigation was named

Chain Reaction

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, described OCDETF as

a premier task force set up to identify, disrupt and dismantle major organized crime and drug trafficking operations. It worked with partners across federal agencies to conduct sophisticated investigations into transnational organized crime and money laundering. OCDETF frequently targeted dangerous drug cartels, the Russian mafia and violent gangs moving fentanyl and weapons.

Trump Dismantled OCDETF

The Trump administration dismantled OCDETF.

69 pages long

Fusion Center

The document is 69 pages long and is heavily redacted. It comes from a request by the DEA to an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia for information from other agencies related to Epstein and the other targets.

Significant Investigation

A law enforcement source told the reporters that a request to the Fusion Center is not routine, which suggests the investigation was a significant one.

Sen. Wyden Investigating Finances

Wyden has been investigating the finances behind Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking organization.

$4B Suspicious Transactions

His investigation has turned up the information that JP Morgan Chase neglected to report more than $4 billion in suspicious financial transactions linked to Epstein.

Scott Bessent Refuses

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has refused to produce the records to the Senate Finance Committee, and in September, Wyden introduced the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (PETRA) to get access to them.

Did Not Cover Treasury

In November, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but it did not cover Treasury financial records.

Wyden said:

The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t.

My head just about exploded when I heard Bessent say it wasn’t his department’s job to investigate these Epstein bank records….

From the beginning, my view has been that following the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network.

It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.

When the CBS News reporters broke the story, about the DEA investigation,

Wyden said:

It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that AG Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files.

On Wednesday, February 23, to Terrance C. Cole, administrator of the DEA

Wyden wrote:

[t]he fact that Epstein was under investigation by the DOJ’s OCDETF task force suggests that there was ample evidence indicating that Epstein was engaged in heavy drug trafficking and prostitution as part of cross-border criminal conspiracy. This is incredibly disturbing and raises serious questions as to how this investigation by the DEA was handled.

Co-conspirators Never Charged

He noted that:

Epstein and the fourteen co-conspirators were never charged for drug trafficking or financial crimes,

and Wyden wrote:

I am concerned that the DEA and DOJ during the first Trump Administration moved to terminate this investigation in order to protect pedophiles. He also noted that the heavy redactions in the document appear to go far beyond anything authorized by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and since the document was not classified,

there is no reason to withhold an unredacted version of this document from the US Congress.

Wyden asked Cole to produce a number of documents by March 13, 2026, two weeks away.

Wyden asked for an unredacted copy of the memo in the files, information about what triggered the investigation, what types of drugs Epstein and his fourteen associates were buying or selling, when

Operation Chain Reaction

concluded, and what was its result, why no one was charged, and why the names of the fourteen co-conspirators were redacted.

Asked by a reporter about Epstein today,

Trump said:

I don’t know anything about the Epstein files. I’ve been fully exonerated.

(Richardson's remaining paragraphs - deleted)

Emails

Department of Justice

Emails

General US Department of Justice information and program inquiries

askdoj@usdoj.gov

DOJ Office of Public Affairs

including OCDETF and the Fusion Center

press@usdoj.gov

Main DOJ “Contact” portal:

https://www.justice.gov/contact-us

The Drug Enforcement Administration

(DEA)

The primary federal agency responsible for enforcing US controlled substance laws and dismantling major drug trafficking and related criminal organizations.

It operates under the Department of Justice, runs domestic and international offices, and conducts intelligence-driven investigations, seizures, and prosecutions in partnership with other federal, state, local, and foreign authorities.

The DEA focuses on disrupting drug supply chains, targeting cartels and large trafficking networks, and combating diversion of legal pharmaceuticals into illegal markets.

Emails

Drug Enforcement Administration

(DEA)

General information:

Public affairs / media:

dea.public.affairs@usdoj.gov

Community outreach / education:

community.outreach@dea.gov

General contact page:

https://www.dea.gov/who-we-are/contact-us

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

(OCDETF)

The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program is a Justice Department framework that coordinates multi-agency, prosecutor-led investigations against major drug trafficking, money laundering, and transnational organized crime networks.

It supports complex, long-term cases by bringing together agencies such as DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations, along with federal prosecutors, to target high-impact criminal organizations and their financial infrastructure.

OCDETF Fusion Center

The OCDETF Fusion Center in Virginia serves as a centralized intelligence and data hub within the OCDETF framework.

It aggregates and analyzes drug and drug-related financial information from multiple federal agencies and databases to support active investigations.

By performing cross-agency data fusion, link analysis, and identification of key organizational targets, the OCDETF Fusion Center helps investigators build comprehensive pictures of high-priority criminal networks and generate actionable leads for coordinated enforcement operations.