Home All News Naval Criminal Investigative Service (headquartered in Quantico, Virginia)

(L-R) Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Liam Catterson, Boarding Party Officer, Special Agent Patrick Price of the United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Royal New Zealand Navy sailor Leading Seaman Combat Specialist Jack Walters prepare to board a fishing dhow suspected of illegal drug smugglingin the Arabian Sea. Special Agent Price is working for the Transnational Crimes Unit based in Bahrain and assigned to Combined Task Force 150 and attached to HMAS Melbourne, which is patrolling in the Middle East region as part of Operation Manitou. *** Local Caption *** HMAS Melbourne is patrolling the Middle East Region as part of Operation Manitou, Australia's contribution to the multinational Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). The CMF undertakes patrols to combat piracy and intercept the trafficking of drugs that help fund international terrorism. HMAS Melbourne is conducting maritime security operations with CMF's Combined Task Force 150 in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (headquartered in Quantico, Virginia)

December 23, 2020

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The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is a federal law enforcement agency that investigates felony crime, prevents terrorism, and protects secrets for the U.S. Department of the Navy (DON).

NCIS is headquartered in Quantico, Virginia and has approximately 2,000 personnel, including over 1,000 federal special agents, in 40 countries and 191 locations all over the world.

The NCIS mission is to investigate and defeat threats wherever they operate:

ashore, afloat, or in cyberspace.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)

There are 4 core mission areas:

Criminal Investigations, Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Cyber

Felony criminal investigations are the cornerstone of the NCIS mission. Felony-level offenses are crimes punishable by confinement for more than one year.

In addition, NCIS provides warning of threats and specialized defensive force protection support to U.S. naval forces around the world.

The organization is roughly 90% civilian, and its cadre of federal agents – about half its total personnel – is 98% civilian.

The NCIS Transnational Crime Unit works with the U.S. Navy and navies of our allies to interdict high seas shipments of drugs, weapons, combatants and other resources that fund and facilitate terrorism.

The NCIS Cold Case Homicide Unit (CCHU) was established in 1995 and was the first dedicated Federal-level cold case homicide unit.

The Office of Forensic Support is a team of specially trained forensic consultants that assist in the processing of crime scenes.

The Major Case Response Team is the group of professionals tasked with processing crime scenes and collecting evidence. The typical MCRT consists of 8-10 people and is led by a designated forensic specialist with advanced training, often including a Master’s Degree in Forensic Science.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 5% of the yearly budget of the Department of the Navy is lost each year to procurement fraud—this figure equates to approximately $8 billion dollars per year.

Types of Economic Crimes Investigated by NCIS:

Bribery
Subcontractor kickbacks
Antitrust
Conflicts of interest
Cost mischarging
Product substitution

Protecting the Naval forces from violent extremist organizations and individuals is one of NCIS’ highest priorities.

NCIS also provides full-spectrum investigative and operational activities in the cyber domain.

NCIS Technical Investigators are responsible for conducting the Navy’s Technical Surveillance Countermeasures mission. They conduct investigations to protect the Department of the Navy’s classified information and critical infrastructure from being compromised by technical means (for example, through covert listening devices or other surveillance technology) employed by foreign intelligence or other parties. These NCIS professionals assess vulnerabilities and identify and resolve technical surveillance threats.

NCIS Headquarters is located in the Russell-Knox Building aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

As the center of operations for the entire spectrum of the NCIS mission, Headquarters oversees all of the field offices and their subordinate components.