Operation Marco Polo

The request has been forwarded from one agency to another agency or department for further review or follow up.

May 21, 2015 ADRIANNE JEFFRIES MUCKROCK NEWS DEPT MR 17673 PO BOX 55819 BOSTON, MA 02250-5819 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2015-ICFO-81940 Dear Ms. JEFFRIES: This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated May 06, 2015, and to your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees. Your request was received in this office on May 21, 2015. Specifically, you requested internal memos, emails, and financial records mentioning Operation Marco Polo, a multi-agency task force formed to investigate the black market website Silk Road based out of the Baltimore Homeland Security Investigations office, mentioned in this article: http://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1 /. Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, ICE processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although ICE’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10- day extension of this time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If you care to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. After thoroughly reviewing your letter and request for fee waiver, I have determined that you have not presented a convincing argument that MUCKROCK NEWS is entitled to a blanket waiver of applicable fees. The DHS FOIA Regulations at 6 CFR § 5.11(k)(2) set forth six factors to examine in determining whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met.  We will consider these factors in our evaluation of your request for a fee waiver: (1) Whether the subject of the requested records concerns “the operations or activities of the government”; (2) Whether the disclosure is “likely to contribute” to an understanding of government operations or activities; (3) Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requestor or a narrow segment of interested persons; (4) Whether the contribution to public understanding of government operations or activities will be "significant"; (5) Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure; and (6) Whether the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requestor is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor. As a requester, you bear the burden under FOIA of showing that the fee waiver requirements have been met.  Based on my review of your May 06, 2015 letter and for the reasons stated herein, I have determined that your fee waiver request is deficient because your request did not satisfy factors 4, 5, and 6.  Since your request for a fee waiver has failed to satisfy each of the required factors, I am denying your fee waiver request. Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request.  We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to non-commercial requesters.  As a non-commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free, as are the first two hours of search time, after which you will pay the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher.  We will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00. You will be contacted before any further fees are accrued. You have the right to appeal the determination to deny your fee waiver request. Should you wish to do so, please send your appeal following the procedures outlined in the DHS regulations at 6 Code of Federal Regulations § 5.9 and a copy of this letter to: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Principal Legal Advisor U.S. Department of Homeland Security Freedom of Information Act Office 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009 Washington, D.C. 20536-5009 Your appeal must be received within 60 days of the date of this letter.  Your envelope and letter should be marked “FOIA Appeal.”  Copies of the FOIA and DHS regulations are available at www.dhs.gov/foia . ICE has queried the appropriate program offices within ICE for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2015-ICFO-81940. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit . Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2014-ICFO-XXXXX or 2015-ICFO-XXXXX tracking number. You may contact this office at (866) 633-1182. Our mailing address is 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009, Washington, D.C. 20536-5009. (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status
Regards,
ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at
www.ice.gov/foia

Dear Requester:

This letter is intended to acknowledge the receipt of your recent Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Acts (FOIA/PA) request originally directed to the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for information pertaining to Operation Marco Polo, a multi-agency task force formed to investigate the black market website Silk Road.

While processing your request, the above mentioned agency has determined that records responsive to your request are likely to be under purview of the United States Secret Service (USSS). Accordingly, your request was transferred to this office for processing and a direct response to you. Your request was received by this office on May 20, 2015.
Due to the increasing number of FOIA/PA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R, Chapter I, Part 5, the Service processes FOIA/PA requests according to their order of receipt.

As it relates to your fee waiver request, your request will be held in abeyance pending the quantification of responsive records. The FOIA regulations, Title 6 C.F.R., Chapter I, Part 5 § 5.11(k)(2)(3), set forth six factors to examine when determining whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met. We will consider these factors in our evaluation of your request for a fee waiver:

1) Whether the subject of the requested records concerns "the operations or activities of the government;"
2) Whether the disclosure is "likely to contribute" to an understanding of government operations or activities;
3) Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requestor or a narrow segment of interested persons;
4) Whether the contribution of public understanding of government operations or activities will be "significant;"
5) Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure; and
6) Whether the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requestor is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor.

If any responsive records are located, we will consider these factors in our evaluation of your request for a fee waiver. In the event that your fee waiver is denied, we shall charge you for the records in accordance with Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to non-commercial ("all other") requesters. The first 100 pages of duplication are free of charge. As an "all other" requester, you will be charged .10 cents a page for the duplication of each additional page. As an "all other" requester, the first 2 hours of search time are free of charge, after which you will be charged the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00, $7.00, $10.25) of the searcher.

Please be advised, the submission of your request, to DHS, is considered a firm commitment, by you, to pay all applicable duplication and search time costs charged, under 6 C.F.R., Chapter I, Part 5 § 5.11, up to $25.00. A search for files responsive to your transferred request is being conducted. The appropriate components of the USSS are being queried for responsive documents. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. You will be contacted before any additional fees are accrued.

Your request has been assigned FOIA File No. 20150919. We solicit your cooperation and assure you that the search will be conducted as expeditiously as possible. To check the status of your FOIA request, please contact this office at (202) 406-6370.

Please use the file number indicated above in all future correspondence with this office.

Sincerely,

United States Secret Service
FOIA/PA Program

All e-mail to/from this account is subject to official review and is for official use only. Action may be taken in response to any inappropriate use of the Secret Service's e-mail system. This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, law enforcement sensitive, or subject to other disclosure limitations. Such information is loaned to you and should not be further disseminated without the permission of the Secret Service. If you have received this e-mail in error, do not keep, use, disclose, or copy it; notify the sender immediately and delete it.

Dear Requester,

Please see the attached final response regarding your recent FOIA/PA request. If you have any questions in regard to this matter, please contact this office at 202-406-5838.

Regards,

Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Acts Branch
United States Secret Service
245 Murray lane, SW, Building T-5
Washington, DC 20223
Phone: 202-406-6370
Fax: 202-406-5586
Email: Foia@usss.dhs.gov<mailto:Foia@usss.dhs.gov>

All e-mail to/from this account is subject to official review and is for official use only. Action may be taken in response to any inappropriate use of the Secret Service's e-mail system. This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, law enforcement sensitive, or subject to other disclosure limitations. Such information is loaned to you and should not be further disseminated without the permission of the Secret Service. If you have received this e-mail in error, do not keep, use, disclose, or copy it; notify the sender immediately and delete it.