U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is blocking the release of an unredacted version of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document linked to the Jeffrey Epstein case and an investigation into potential drug trafficking and money laundering operations. This is stated in a letter sent by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden to Blanche on Tuesday, March 17.
The document in question is a 69-page target profile prepared for the DEA by a Justice Department unit—the now-disbanded Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). It was released in January as part of a multimillion-page trove of materials related to the Epstein case. Despite extensive redactions, it indicates that in 2015 the DEA and OCDETF investigated Epstein, 12 other individuals, and two companies.
The profile states that “these individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers tied to illicit drug trafficking and/or prostitution activities in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York.” OCDETF—a multi-agency unit established during the Reagan era to combat transnational crime—was defunded and shut down last year.
The DEA and OCDETF investigation focused on the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes for wealthy clients, as well as the illicit financing and distribution of so-called “club drugs,” including ecstasy, methamphetamine, and ketamine—a substance known for its use in facilitating sexual assault. According to sources, those involved—whose names remain redacted—included Epstein’s brother, accountants, lawyers, and European women who worked as his assistants or models.
Wyden first requested the document from the DEA on February 25 following a CBS News report. In his letter to Blanche, citing Bloomberg, he wrote: “shortly after I requested an unredacted copy of this OCDETF memorandum, the Department of Justice intervened and prevented the DEA from fulfilling my request.”
“According to confidential information obtained by my staff, DEA Administrator Terry Cole was prepared to provide the full document, however you intervened to block its release,” Wyden wrote, adding that “such interference raises serious concerns.”
According to sources, the investigation was spun off from the DEA-OCDETF operation Chain Reaction, launched in 2011 and aimed at drug networks and individuals linked to organized crime.
Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said he is “tracking financial flows and examining how Epstein may have used the U.S. financial system to conduct thousands of suspicious transfers and cash withdrawals, allegedly to facilitate the trafficking of women and minors.”
“To support this investigation, I demand that you immediately allow the release” of the full version of the document, he wrote to Blanche.
Separately on Monday, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and DEA Administrator Terry Cole requesting information about another OCDETF operation referenced in the Epstein case materials.
This operation—Trip Knot—was launched by OCDETF in coordination with the FBI several months before Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges. According to sources, it focused on money laundering, human trafficking, and drug trafficking schemes linked to Russian organized crime and based on FBI and DEA cases from 2017–2018. Epstein’s name was also repeatedly mentioned within the scope of this investigation.
Whitehouse requested information from Bondi, Patel, and Cole on whether Operation Trip Knot is ongoing and whether it has led to arrests or indictments.