DEA HIDTA Hemisphere

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. According to a presentation by the Office of National Drug Policy on Hemisphere (I can provide documents if needed)
- The Hemisphere Project is a law enforcement sensitive subpoena compliance program funded by HIDTA / ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy)
- An administrative subpoena is all that is needed to obtain Hemisphere results and work products.
Further Hemisphere works because "Hemisphere has access to telecommunications switches that are used by telecom providers to guide telephone calls".

According to reports of project Hemisphere, there is a Houston Investigate Support Center (ISC) for project Hemisphere that accepts requests from HIDTA task forces for all central and mountain time zones.

Further, to get a request fulfilled "A completed Hemisphere request form, administrative subpoena, and riders should be faxed to the appropriate Hemisphere Regional Center by the ISC Point of Contact".

Therefore, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act I am requesting the following documents from the Houston ISC:
- The number of faxed riders, subpoenas and/or Hemisphere request forms from 2016 to 2010.
- The number of requests submitted by the Chicago Police Department / DEA HIDTA based in Chicago for the same time frame (2016 - 2010).
- The number of unique requests submitted to ISC for that same time frame from all HIDTA taskforces.
- Copies of all faxed requests between CPD's PoC and the ISC Point of contact.
- Any follow up emails, memos, phone calls, physical mail or discussion between the ISC POC and CPD.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. Further this request is being submitted in the public interest and I request any fees be waived.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Freddy Martinez

FOIA Officers,

That is incorrect and I am appealing this search as wholly inadequate. You are correct that ONDCP created the slides I am referring to but HEMISPHERE is a HIDTA program that is administered by the DEA. Therefore, the records should be maintained by the HIDTA Investigative Support Centers (ISC). As described in my original request "Further, to get a request fulfilled "A completed Hemisphere request form, administrative subpoena, and riders should be faxed to the appropriate Hemisphere Regional Center by the ISC Point of Contact"." Therefore these records *should exist* where I described them, the HEMISPHERE ISC, and further there should emails for following up once a control number has been assigned after a faxed copy arrives.

Therefore, I request that this search be described as inadequate.

Respectfully,
Freddy Martinez

Greetings,

I am following up on my appeal DOJ-AP-2017-001122. I have not heard further information about the request and it has been about three months since I placed it. Do you know if I should expect a response?

Regards,
Freddy Martinez