Feds form ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ in Nashville, among several other major U.S. cities

Representatives of federal agencies joined Rob McGuire, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, to announce the formation of task force in Middle Tennessee. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Federal officials on Thursday announced the formation of a Nashville-based Homeland Security Task Force to combat gangs, drug trafficking and transnational crime across Middle Tennessee.

Dozens of federal law enforcement agents from the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division and state and local agencies will be deployed across central Tennessee as part of the expanded “whole government” approach to law enforcement, said Rob McGuire, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The task force was convened at the direction of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and represents one of the first of what is expected to be an expanded federal presence in communities nationwide, said Jeff Pfeiffer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI Nashville field office. 

Similar task forces were announced this week in Indianapolis, Dallas and Little Rock.

“To effectively dismantle these transnational criminal organizations the FBI and our partners at HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) spearheaded the creation and implementation of a nationwide homeland security task force network,” Pfeiffer said. “This allows us to extend our reach, share intelligence in real time and target these threats at every level.”

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The task force announcement in Nashville follows the Trump administration’s highly visible and controversial deployment of federal law enforcement officers and National Guard members to  Washington, DC, Memphis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland to enforce immigration laws and patrol community streets.  

Those efforts were launched by executive orders and memoranda issued by President Donald Trump. Trump has thus far not issued any formal written directive establishing the task force in Nashville. 

Asked whether he viewed the work of the Nashville task force as distinct from the activities in those cities, McGuire did not provide a direct answer.

“I think what we’re trying to do is combat gang violence, drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations. That’s where I’m going to leave that,” McGuire said in an interview with the Lookout after the press conference. 

And in response to a question about whether Middle Tennessee residents would soon see a more visible federal law enforcement presence in their communities, McGuire said he did not know.

“I think right now we’re focusing on drug trafficking and gang violence,” he said. “There are going to be more detectives trying to launch our investigations about violence and drug trafficking. I don’t know the answer to that.”

The effort will also involve local police departments and county sheriffs, including the Metro Nashville Police Department. The collaboration does not thus far include the Tennessee National Guard, whose presence in Memphis is currently being challenged in court. 

Gov. Bill Lee, who authorized the Guard’s deployment in Memphis, declined to respond to a reporter Thursday when asked if he would be mobilizing the Guard as part of the task force’s efforts in Nashville.

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake, among more than two dozen law enforcement officials present at Thursday’s press conference, said Nashville has thus far had a “great partnership with federal law enforcement” but drew a distinction between his department’s involvement in the task force and the work of federal partners.

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“Our task force is focused on drugs, gangs and illegal activity,” Drake said. “That’s it. We’re not focusing on immigration or on a person’s status, whether they are documented or undocumented.”

“As far as the other branches of the federal government, I’m not sure what they’ll do. But I can tell you our focus is criminal activity and that’s different from west of here,” he said in a reference to federal task force activity in Memphis.

Thursday’s press conference marked the first official day of the task force, but McGuire noted that federal and local law enforcement have for months been cooperating to combat crimes involving cartels, drug traffickers and transnational criminal operations. 

Against a backdrop of large poster boards displaying mug shots, McGuire described the indictment of 38 individuals in recent months for offenses that include involvement in fentanyl and methamphetamine distribution pipelines, gun offenses and gang violence, including the arrests of 20 “midlevel dealers” in Cumberland County. 

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“This is something you’re probably going to see more of in this district and other places,” McGuire said. 

The Homeland Security Task Force in Nashville is similar to federal law enforcement forces created earlier this week in Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Little Rock, Arkansas. The Nashville task force will be led by the U.S. Department of Justice in Nashville and made up of personnel from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Alcohol, Fire and Tobacco (ATF), the FBI, the Army Criminal Investigative Division, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, Metro Nashville Police and other local agencies. 

This is not the first federal task force to be created in Tennessee under Trump. In September, Trump and Lee created a law enforcement force to “end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent.” The Memphis task force has announced over 1,000 arrests, but released scant information about the names or charges of those taken into custody. 

At the same time, the Memphis task force’s focus is on making a high volume of traffic stops. The Lookout previously reported on a man who was held by Memphis Task Force officers for 45 minutes over a loose car bumper. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica reported that many of Memphis’s Black residents are getting caught in the “indiscriminate and intimidating police encounters.”

Sam Stockard contributed reporting to this story.