US drug agents plumb vast phone databases

Associated Press

SEATTLE

For at least six years, federal drug and other agents have had near-immediate access to billions of phone- call records dating back decades in a collaboration with AT&T that officials have taken pains to keep secret, newly released documents show.

The program, first reported Monday by The New York Times, is called the Hemisphere Project. It’s paid for by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and it allows investigators armed with subpoenas to quickly mine the company’s vast database to help track down drug traffickers or other suspects who switch cellphones to avoid detection.

The details of the Hemisphere Project come amid a national debate about the federal government’s access to phone records, particularly the bulk collection of phone records for national-security purposes.