Inside the World of Chemistry, Calculations, and Clandestine Labs

This is the eighth installment in a series of profiles featuring DEA special agents, diversion investigators, chemists, and more. Learn about the tough but fulfilling, fascinating, and vital work these DEA personnel do, as well as the many different ways to get involved in fighting drug misuse. For our eighth profile, we will be interviewing Senior Research Chemist Joe from the Special Operations Division.

What motivated you to join the DEA?

I began work in a small forensic lab in Fort Worth, Texas. While the work I was exposed to was interesting and diverse, I wanted to grow. A colleague shared an employment offer packet with the stylized lettering “DEA Forensic Chemist.” Upon reading it completely, I knew immediately that was a challenge I wanted. I asked friends around the law enforcement community about any details they might share and learned of a passionate and smart team. To this date, I still love the decision to pursue this career with DEA and I still believe it to be one of the most fulfilling opportunities available in forensics.

What does an average day as a senior research chemist look like for you?

An average day involves me providing chemistry support for drug investigations and intelligence. Chemistry support involves calculations, organic chemistry, assessing precursor viability, and analytical considerations at the lab. This ranges from phone calls, emails, meetings, and even responding to drug crime scenes, such as clandestine laboratories. Additionally, I keep current with the trends in drug manufacturing and smuggling, as well as the evolution of forensic chemistry technology through peer-reviewed scientific articles. As DEA’s mission is global, I do spend a considerable amount of time traveling both domestically and internationally to meet with or present to investigators and other forensic researchers.  

What has been your proudest moment as a senior research chemist thus far?

I’m quite proud of the collaborations that are ongoing with other research institutions. We carry a great many projects with universities and other federal laboratories, both domestic and foreign, that produce advancements in forensics, intelligence, as well as organic and analytical chemistry in peer-reviewed publications, posters, patents, and presentations. There’s a satisfaction that is gained from serving the public and a unique one to contribute to the body of science.

How can young people who wish to become a DEA senior research chemist best prepare themselves for the job?

There are prerequisites for the position of forensic chemists; however, the best preparation is mental. Be willing and eager to take on the most formidable, the most difficult, and the most ominous challenges in your professional career. It’s the culmination of your victories and lessons learned that make for an impactful career in public service. As a professional, learning is self-paced and requires discipline. Much can be learned, especially in Forensic Chemistry, by seeking these challenges directly.

The synthetic opioid fentanyl – often mixed into other drugs – is now responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths per year. How has the fentanyl epidemic changed your job?

The synthetic drug crisis owes its origin and duration to organic chemistry. The very same chemistry that can be altruistic is, in the wrong hands, for profit and peril. As such, DEA’s progressed to include more and more chemists in its day-to-day operations. This includes frequent input on policy, executive advisement, prosecution meetings, and certainly – public outreach. Given the very nature of the potency associated with novel synthetic opioids, forensic chemistry has had to adapt in many ways. Myself and my forensic chemist colleagues throughout the DEA lab system strive to provide the very best support and the most comprehensive analyses in support of investigations.

FBI Updates Congress on Threats Involving Insiders

FBI Counterintelligence executive C. Frank Figliuzzi briefed members of a House subcommittee on our efforts to disrupt economic espionage activity in the U.S., which—based on our pending cases—has resulted in losses of more than $13 billion to the American economy. Figliuzzi highlighted two growing threats: the willingness of so-called insiders to steal trade secrets and other proprietary information and hand it over to foreign entities; and the illegal transfer of U.S. technology, which could potentially end up in weapons of mass destruction.

The hearing, titled “Economic Espionage: A Foreign Intelligence Threat to Americans Jobs and Homeland Security,” also featured officials from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Figliuzzi noted that the “partnerships represented at this hearing”—coupled with public awareness—are a vital component to combating economic espionage.

Owen D. Harris Named Assistant Director of Training Division

Director Robert S. Mueller, III has named Owen D. Harris assistant director of the FBI’s Training Division. Mr. Harris most recently served as a deputy assistant director of the Directorate of Intelligence.

Mr. Harris began his career as a special agent with the FBI in August 1990. He first reported to the Indianapolis Division, Gary Resident Agency, where he worked a variety of programs.

In 1997, Mr. Harris was promoted to the Hate Crimes Unit at FBI Headquarters and served as the national program manager for civil rights investigations involving racial and religious discrimination. He represented the FBI on the U.S. Attorney General’s Hate Crimes Working Group and was instrumental in developing a national hate crimes training program for law enforcement personnel in the United States. He also represented the FBI on the President’s National Church Arson Task Force, which directed investigations into arsons occurring at multiple houses of worship throughout the country.

Mr. Harris was selected as a violent crimes supervisor in the Houston Division in September 1999. He directed multiple task forces focused on gang violence, property crimes, international fugitives, and crimes against children. While there, he led one of the FBI’s largest child sexual exploitation investigations.

In June 2003, he was promoted to assistant section chief in the Counterterrorism Division, where he earned the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in Management. Mr. Harris was then selected as the assistant special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Division in August 2005 and directed all counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence operations.

In January 2007, he returned to FBI Headquarters as a section chief in the Directorate of Intelligence and managed intelligence operations in support of national priorities. He was named special agent in charge of the Charlotte Division in February 2009 and, in February 2011, was promoted to deputy assistant director in the Directorate of Intelligence.

A Pennsylvania native, Mr. Harris has a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, Mr. Harris worked as a youth and family counselor for a non-profit organization. He was commissioned as a U.S. Air Force officer and served as a missile combat crew commander and instructor at the 321st Strategic Missile Wing in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Mr. Harris is married and has three children.

FBI Financial Intelligence Center: Getting Ahead of Crime

Investigating financial crime is like working a puzzle—you have to fit all of the pieces of information together in order to see the entire picture. The FBI’s Financial Intelligence Center in Washington, D.C., does just that, linking disparate pieces of data to give our field investigators a clearer picture of possible criminal activity in their regions.

The center was established in the fall of 2009 in response to the financial crisis at that time—its mission was to identify potential investigative targets engaged in mortgage fraud. Because of its success, the center’s focus expanded to include other types of financial crimes, like securities/commodities fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, fraud against the government, and even public corruption (which usually involves financial wrongdoing of some sort).

The center is staffed primarily by intelligence analysts and staff operations specialists. Their first order of business is to review large datasets that come from the FBI, other law enforcement and regulatory agencies, consumer complaint websites, etc. Computer programs cull out data with common themes (i.e., similar scams, similar names). That data is researched and analyzed to help further identify potential subjects and/or activity, and the results are organized using spreadsheets and link analysis in order to draw connections among all the key players. If there is good reason to believe that criminal activity exists, the results are summarized in an intelligence package and sent to the appropriate field office.

During fiscal year 2011, FBI offices opened dozens of investigations based on the center’s intelligence packages.

Current initiatives. In response to some of the most serious financial crimes, the Financial Intelligence Center is working on a number of specific initiatives, such as:

■Foreclosure rescue fraud, where analysts collect and analyze deceptive practices complaint data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is then cross-referenced with suspicious activity reports filed by financial institutions;

■Securities and corporate fraud, in which the center partners with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to review civil referrals for possible criminal violations;

■Health care fraud, which involves us working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Department of Justice on a new predictive modeling system that uses algorithms to generate lists of medical professionals potentially engaging in health care fraud; and

■Money laundering, in which analysts review incoming intelligence from the FBI’s Southwest Border Initiative to determine if subjects are laundering proceeds from criminal activities.

Although the center’s primary mission is to identify those who may have thus far escaped the law enforcement lens, it also uses its tools and expertise to enhance current investigations that feature large numbers of subjects and multiple FBI offices.

Of course, we don’t do this alone—we work closely with our partners. As a matter of fact, our analysts are currently or will soon be embedded in the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the SEC, the Internal Revenue Service, the FTC, and the CMS….to expand even further the pool of data that can be used by all to uncover financial crime.

The bottom line of the FBI’s Financial Intelligence Center: to work proactively to help identify the nation’s most egregious criminal enterprises.

Intelligence Analysts Part 3: A Rewarding Career

In the decade since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI’s intelligence program has tripled in size, and our analysts work around the world—from the front lines in Afghanistan to the White House Situation Room—to help keep the country safe.

Behind the scenes, Bureau administrators are working hard to make the FBI a great career choice for intelligence professionals by defining career paths, offering advanced training, and establishing senior-level positions within the organization.

Tonya Ugoretz, the Bureau’s chief intelligence officer, manages our senior intelligence officers (SIOs), a group of highly skilled professionals whose job description did not exist 10 years ago. “Certainly 9/11 was part of the reason for creating the SIO corps,” Ugoretz said. “We needed an entity that transcended the stove pipes of specific program areas, and we wanted to provide analysts with senior positions they could aspire to. Developing this career ladder helps us increase the opportunities for analysts, and it deepens our bench analytically.”

Currently, there are approximately a dozen SIOs whose expertise covers all FBI investigative programs, from counterterrorism and counterintelligence to criminal matters. Some SIOs are assigned geographic territories—where many criminal and national security investigations overlap—and are acknowledged experts on key areas around the world.

“SIOs look at threats and issues from a very broad perspective,” Ugoretz explained. “Our focus is more big-picture than day to day cases. SIOs regularly give advice and counsel to our senior leadership, so we are always looking at what we know, and also what we don’t know.”

That means SIOs are required to understand current threats but are also responsible for “looking over the horizon to see what we should be anticipating,” Ugoretz added. “What do we know today? What should we be thinking about for the future? What are the risks and opportunities that present themselves? These are the issues tailor-made for senior intelligence officers.”

SIOs also serve as a bridge between the FBI and the wider intelligence community, making sure that the FBI’s perspective is factored into the entire intelligence community’s thinking—and making sure the intelligence community’s perspective is known to decision makers inside the Bureau. SIOs perform a similar liaison role with the academic community as well.

These senior analysts usually come from the ranks of career intelligence professionals and have significant subject matter expertise in their chosen field. “My section mainly focuses on intelligence for the Bureau’s executive decision-makers,” Ugoretz said. “Our role is to make sure leadership is aware of all the information and analysis we are generating Bureau-wide. The products we provide can ultimately factor into decisions made at the highest levels of government.”

The concept of senior intelligence officers is a relatively new one to the FBI, Ugoretz said. “So far, the more interaction our workforce has with SIOs, the more they see the value of the position. We look forward to building on that success.”

Career Paths for Analysts

Since 9/11, the FBI has worked hard to establish career paths for intelligence analysts and senior positions they can aspire to.

After an intensive 10-week basic training course, intelligence analysts (IAs) specialize in one of three analytic areas—tactical, strategic, or collection/reporting. They may work at FBI Headquarters, in one of our 56 field offices, or internationally in one of our legal attaché offices.

As they gain experience and subject matter expertise, IAs can move up the career ladder to intermediate and advanced positions such as supervisory intelligence analysts and senior intelligence officers.

Intelligence Analysts Part 2: The Subject Matter Experts

Intelligence analysts—IAs in Bureau parlance—are involved in nearly every aspect of FBI operations in every corner of the globe. And in the decade since 9/11, their role has continued to expand.

“Even though analysts don’t carry weapons or arrest individuals, there is a growing recognition that what we bring to the table is extremely valuable and that we are an integral part of the team,” said Sally Rall, an IA who works in one of our regional intelligence groups in Sacramento.

Analysts begin their FBI training with the 10-week Intelligence Basic Course to learn fundamental skills. Soon after they begin to specialize in one of three distinct analytic areas: strategic, tactical, or collection/reporting. Rall, for example, is a tactical analyst who works on domestic terrorism matters.

“Tactical IAs are less big picture and more boots on the ground,” she explained. “If an agent needs to get in the car and go arrest someone before that person hurts somebody, the agent can call an IA for vital information—information that can save lives.”

Strategic analysts, on the other hand, work on longer-term threats on a broader scale. Whereas a tactical IA might be focused on a gang case in a particular area, the strategic IA might be looking at the gang’s activities from a national or transnational perspective.

“Strategic analysis is less about a specific case and more about understanding what we know and what we don’t know about a threat,” said Marita Cook, a strategic IA in our Geospatial Intelligence Unit at Headquarters. “We look at threats, vulnerabilities, and gaps in our knowledge for every FBI program. Often, there is so much raw information—from cases, sources, and other data—that it’s difficult to bring it all together into one clear picture,” Cook added. “Our job is to provide clarity.”

IAs who work in the collection/reporting discipline are generally responsible for understanding the Bureau’s intelligence collection capabilities and how they integrate across the FBI and with the entire U.S. intelligence community. They also ensure that information is disseminated in a timely manner.

“In collection, we’re not evaluating the why of the case or even the threat—we’re telling you how we’re positioned to collect against it and what capabilities we have—or need—to fill the gaps,” said Dina Corsi, chief of the Domain Collection Operations Support Section in the Directorate of Intelligence.

The goal, Corsi said, is to build collection and reporting capabilities and make the results available to all programs across the Bureau. “So if you are working in counterintelligence and the Criminal Division might have assets you could use, you would be aware of that and be able to leverage it. Our job is to streamline the intelligence process.”

Like many of her IA colleagues, Rall was motivated to join the Bureau to fight terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. She is impressed with the dedication and professionalism of her fellow analysts.

“I have met incredibly brilliant people who are analysts here,” said Rall, who has a doctorate in psychology. “There are lawyers, scientists, people who are multi-lingual, national and international experts in their fields with priceless institutional knowledge going back over 20 years. It’s an honor to work in this environment.”

The Analyst’s Role

Regardless of what discipline or program area they work in, the primary responsibility of intelligence analysts is to gather, analyze, and disseminate information. Below is a partial IA job description:

- Identify and extract essential information from intelligence products and investigations, analyze the data, and synthesize the information into reports that can be disseminated.

-  Develop specific expertise, discern patterns of complex behavior, and provide an accurate understanding of present and future threats.

- Apply highly developed inductive reasoning skills to provide a proactive approach to potential threats.

- Navigate a variety of records, reports, miscellaneous communications, case files, and other sources to support research and analysis.

- Initiate, establish, and maintain effective working relationships inside and outside the FBI.

What makes a good IA? According to Marita Cook, a strategic analyst at FBI Headquarters, “You have to be very data oriented. You need to understand the data and how all the pieces can be used together to see the larger picture. You need to be intrigued by questions—why are things happening the way they are? And above all,” she said, “you have to be persistent, following every lead to its logical conclusion.”

Next: Making a career in the intelligence program.

Law Enforcement Intelligence Operations

On November 7, 2008, Conversations with Cops at the Watering Hole will feature a conversation with Captain Franks S. Root, Arizona Department of Public Safety (ret.) on law enforcement intelligence operations.

Program Date: November 7, 2008
Program Time: 2100 hours, Pacific
Topic: Law Enforcement Intelligence Operations
Listen Live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2008/11/08/Law-Enforcement-Intelligence-Operations

About the Guest
Frank S. Root has more than 35 years in law enforcement and intelligence operations with special emphasis on complex intelligence investigations organization and case management. During his law enforcement career he worked for the Arizona Department of Public Safety (20 years, retired as Captain); San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office (Automation and Crime Analysis Unit); and, State of California, Division of Investigation (conducting criminal investigations involving identity theft, insurance, and consumer fraud)

Frank S. Root is the author of Law Enforcement Intelligence Critical Elements which “is described as a publication designed to demonstrate how to identify, develop, and deliver the various intelligence-related products and services required to effectively support law enforcement intelligence and operational managers at each management level within an agency.”

About the Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting.

About the Host
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton; and, has completed his doctoral course work. Raymond E. Foster has been a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and Fresno; and is currently a faculty advisor and lecturer with the Union Institute and University. He has experience teaching upper division courses in law enforcement, public policy, law enforcement technology and leadership. Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One. He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in law enforcement.

Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2008/11/08/Law-Enforcement-Intelligence-Operations

Program Contact Information
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA
editor@police-writers.com
909.599.7530