---
aliases:
- Witness Security Program
- WITSEC
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-09-22
location: United States
relations:
- fn: 2
  reverse: true
  role: protected witness
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Michael Townley]]'
start: 1971
summary: Federal Witness Security Program run by the U.S. Marshals Service since 1971,
  which relocated the DINA assassin Michael Townley under another name after his Letelier
  plea.
tags:
- Program
- USGovernment
- USMarshals
- DepartmentOfJustice
updated: 2026-09-22
---

The Witness Security Program, which the U.S. Marshals Service says is "sometimes referred to as the 'Witness Protection Program,'" protects witnesses whose lives are in danger because of their testimony against drug traffickers, terrorists, organized crime and other major criminals. It "was authorized by the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and amended by the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984," and by the Marshals Service's count has "protected, relocated, and given new identities to more than 19,250 witnesses and their family members, since the program began in 1971." Candidates are vetted by the sponsoring law enforcement agency, the sponsoring U.S. Attorney, the Marshals Service and the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s Office of Enforcement Operations, "which makes the final determination." The service states that no participant following its guidelines "has ever been harmed or killed."[^1]

### Michael Townley

[Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/), the American-born agent of the Chilean secret police [DINA](/organizations/dina/) who planted the car bombs that killed General [Carlos Prats](/people/carlos-prats/) in [Buenos Aires](/places/buenos-aires/) in 1974 and [Orlando Letelier](/people/orlando-letelier/) in [Washington](/places/washington-dc/) in 1976, pleaded guilty in Washington in August 1978 and testified against DINA's chief [Manuel Contreras](/people/manuel-contreras/), [Armando Fernández Larios](/people/armando-fernandez-larios/) and five Cubans. He was sentenced to ten years, served 62 months, and has since lived in the [United States](/places/united-states/) under another name in the program.[^2][^3] In 1983 Prats's daughters Sofía and Angélica went to Washington with Argentine lawyers to seek his extradition; a federal judge ruled that his plea agreement prevented it.[^3]

### Michael Riconosciuto

[Michael Riconosciuto](/people/michael-riconosciuto/), arrested in March 1991 on charges of running a methamphetamine laboratory, eight days after signing an affidavit on the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software, tried repeatedly to trade information with the [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/), the BATF and the [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network](/organizations/financial-crimes-enforcement-network/) for entry into the program, offering to hand over "[The Company](/organizations/the-company/)" and [Robert Booth Nichols](/people/robert-booth-nichols/). The former FBI agent [Ted Gunderson](/people/ted-gunderson/) tried to broker his admission. Nothing came of the approaches.[^4]

[^1]: U.S. Marshals Service, "Witness Security," archived September 22, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260922082044/https://www.usmarshals.gov/what-we-do/witness-security
[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man
[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert," National Security Archive, October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia
[^4]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited.