For Release: Friday, September 7, 2007
DEC REPORTS: Investigative Unit Reconstituted
BECI Historically Focuses on High-level Environmental Crimes
To boost environmental crime-fighting efforts, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has reconstituted a unit that focuses on high-level and statewide criminal operations, Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today.
The Department has restructured its Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigations (BECI), appointing a major and a captain to direct the unit. They will provide direction and oversight to BECI investigators across the state, work to enhance the intelligence unit within DEC's Division of Law Enforcement and coordinate the bureau's various undercover operations. In addition, these new positions will give DEC command-level officers to interact on a more regular basis with other law-enforcement agencies, including the State Police, the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"These appointments will greatly improve our investigative capacity, including our ability to do statewide and other complex investigations," Grannis said. "Restructuring the BECI unit will not only provide an enhanced measure of environmental protection, but also will serve to protect the businesses that play by the rules."
The BECI unit has historically focused on felony-level criminal activity, the commissioner added. In the past, BECI has investigated cases of large-scale hazardous waste dumping, endangered species trafficking, illegal fish trafficking and money laundering in the solid waste industry. For example, in 1996-97 BECI officers worked undercover to infiltrate a wholesale business that shipped contaminated and illegally caught fish worldwide.
In the early 1990s, the unit investigated what was then the largest waste-oil processor in the nation, discovering that the company was mixing hazardous waste with oil and selling it as heating fuel and automobile oil. That case triggered felony convictions and fines topping $6 million.
BECI was established in 1982. Beginning in 1996, it was gradually scaled down as part of a reorganization effort. The positions of BECI major and BECI captain were eliminated and lieutenants and investigators were reassigned to report to regional offices. There are currently 37 lieutenants and investigators, down from a high of 42 in 1998.
To restructure the unit, Grannis named Major Charles Johncox, a 26-year veteran of the Department's Division of Law Enforcement, statewide BECI coordinator, and Scott Florence, an experienced BECI investigator, captain.
"By making these appointments, we're putting in place a system that focuses on complex criminal enterprises, not run-of-the-mill violations," Grannis said.
