FBI CHIEF LISTS TOP 3 PRIORITIES

Drug-trafficking, white collar crime and violent crime investigations
are the top three priorities for El Paso's FBI field office, said
Hardrick Crawford Jr., the agency's new special agent-in-charge.

Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will focus on the
protection of national infrastructure -- strategic facilities and
computer systems -- and international terrorism.

Within white-collar crime, the FBI plans to emphasize healthcare
fraud, public corruption and governmental fraud.

"Governmental fraud wasn't even on the radar screen when I got here,"
Crawford said. "Yet, we have several school districts and Fort Bliss,
and each of these receives lots of federal dollars."

Crawford said the FBI likely has not charged any non-police public
official with corruption in recent memory "because these kinds of
investigations are complex and manpower intensive."

Crawford, 52, has been in El Paso since July 20. The new FBI special
agent-in-charge shared his objectives for the El Paso field office
during a recent meeting of the El Paso Press Club.

At the meeting, he said he plans to take a hard line against drug-
trafficking, and the corruption that accompanies the drug trade.

U.S. officials consider El Paso-Juarez a major drug corridor for the
Mexican drug cartels.

Juarez experiences two to three drug-related fatal shootings each
month, and most of the attacks are attributed to the settling of
accounts by drug dealers.

"I'm a fierce, fierce opponent of the drug cartel(s)," said Crawford,
who has extensive experience in investigating drug-related crimes in
Cincinnati and Miami. "I've seen first-hand the effects of drugs in
... neighborhoods, and because of that I'm also opposed to the
decriminalization of drugs."

Sandalio Gonzalez, special agent-in-charge of El Paso's Drug
Enforcement Administration operations, said he had worked with
Crawford on drug investigations in Miami, where Gonzalez previously
was assigned. "(Crawford) is good," he said.

"If the El Paso FBI prioritizes drugs, that's good," said Gonzalez,
whose agency is charged with investigating drug-related cases. "It
puts that many more agents to work on the problem."

In his first few weeks in El Paso, Crawford has been meeting with
other law-enforcement agencies and with members of the community.

El Paso Police Department Deputy Chief Robert Almonte said he and
Police Chief Carlos Leon recently met with Crawford.

Almonte, who oversaw drug investigations for the Police Department for
more than a dozen years, said he welcomes the FBI's interest in the
border's drug-trafficking problem.

"Given the level of narcotics we see flowing through this community,
we can never have too many people dedicated to investigating," Almonte
said. "The only way we're going to get a handle on this is for all the
agencies to work together, and to get the community involved through
such things as the police Stash House unit.

"I also liked that Crawford said he wants to work with the local law-
enforcement agencies in El Paso. He's going to be an asset to the community."

The International Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared
Persons is among the groups Crawford said he plans to meet with in the
near future.

The organization is seeking to learn the fate of more than 200 people,
including 18 to 22 U.S. citizens, who were reported "disappeared" in
Juarez since 1993. Someone who has been disappeared has been reported
to have been taken away by force, and whose fate remains unknown.