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HSI Domestic Operations is responsible for managing, directing, and coordinating all investigative activity of HSI domestic field offices, including 30 HSI Special Agents in Charge offices, 237 domestic field offices, and more than 7,100 field investigative personnel. HSI Domestic Operations works hand-and-hand with International Operations to further our domestic security through international investigations of transnational criminal organizations by securing funding for case travel, processing Foreign Travel Request (FTRs), and being a clearing house for deconfliction between regional Attachés and Special Agents in Charge. The Domestic Operations Division ensures implementation and adherence to investigative governance (mission priorities established by the HSI Executive Associate Director to achieve congressional and departmental objectives). Domestic Operations oversees all major enforcement initiatives (UNGA, NSSE Enforcement Surges, etc.), deconflicts field operations (multiple jurisdictions and AOR take downs), and apprises HSI leadership of on-going field investigations and significant or critical incidents.

The Cyber and Operational Technology Division encompasses all Cyber Criminal Investigative activity, Systems Development, Title III Interception program, Systems modernization, covert audio/video surveillance, tactical communications, body wire & tracking, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-UAS, Law Enforcement Case Management, data quality and executive reporting. The divisional budget includes approximately $250 million in contracts and acquisitions annually. Major accomplishments to date include the development and deployment of a modernized subpoena generation system; the development and deployment of an automated translation and transcription system; the regionalization of the intercept program hubs; the procurement and deployment of a new generation of mobile command centers; and the acquisition and deployment of a new covert video system to all HSI field offices. Major initiatives I’ve implemented include the modernization of the HSI communication intercept program to change the focus from traditional voice or data intercepts to end-to-end encrypted communications, which is one of the biggest vulnerabilities faced by US Law Enforcement and Intelligence agencies.

The Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the HSI "Riverside" office, is responsible for the area encompassing both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties under HSI Los Angeles. The HSI Riverside office is one of the largest ASAC areas of responsibility in the country by both geographic area and population: The two counties consist of over 27,400 square miles, or roughly the equivalent of the 5 smallest U.S. states combined; The population base is estimated to be nearly 4.8 million people, the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States, equivalent to Phoenix or San Francisco. The office is uniquely located with both proximity to the U.S./Mexico Border to the South and the second largest city in the U.S., Los Angeles, just to the West. The major land, sea, and airports within close proximity to HSI Riverside, along with the major interstates that bisect the area of responsibility make the HSI Riverside and San Bernardino offices a strategically significant location for HSI's mission towards combating the biggest threats to the continental U.S. and addressing the highest priorities HSI faces as an agency.I led 2 major gang task forces in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. With the addition of these state and local task forces, I added approximately 40 task-force officers assigned to the HSI Riverside office, effectively doubling the law enforcement personnel. I initiated or improved collaboration and cooperation with our Federal partners, to include the US Attorney's office and adjacent HSI AOR offices whose responsibilities include investigative activities related to the ports of entry along the Southern Border. These improvements have resulted in the more efficient investigation and prosecution of more complex and significant cases at the Federal level. Three consecutive years, HSI Riverside led all domestic investigative offices in wire intercepts, conducting almost 300 intercepts, resulting in significant seizures and forfeitures.

Financial crimes, Money Laundering, Transnational Organized Crime. As the Financial Group Supervisor I met with local and Federal prosecutors and our allied law enforcement partners in Orange County, California to leverage HSI’s full investigative authorities in the identification and dismantling of national and international money laundering organizations. I implemented the use of a wide scope of investigative techniques to identify and prosecute complex conspiracies, including Federal Title III Wire Intercepts and undercover activities and assets to name a few. After taking over the financial investigative group, special agents and task force officers initiated several complex investigations that led to the seizure of millions of US dollars and other assets and have identified several transnational criminal organizations laundering illicit proceeds, both nationally and internationally, in amounts believed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and in one case, over a billion in US dollars.I met and coordinated with numerous Orange County chiefs of police, as well as top senior officials at the California Department of Justice to establish, via MOU, the HSI-led Parcel and Commercial Narcotics Enforcement Task Force (PACNET) within HSI. The primary mission of PACNET is to interrupt and diminish the flow of drugs and their illicit proceeds in and out of Southern California using commercial parcel delivery services. The taskforce also worked with other drug interdiction programs throughout the United States to investigate, prosecute, and seize the assets of criminal enterprises involved in the distribution of controlled substances nationally and internationally, thereby increasing public safety.

At ICE Headquarters, I was assigned as the National Program Manager (PM) for the Modernization and Law Enforcement Systems Development Sections, within what is currently the Cyber and Operational Technology Division of HSI. I was tasked to be in the unique position of becoming intimately familiar with all programmatic and investigative areas within ICE and HSI in order to translate the investigative and intelligence needs and requirements of the agents, analysts, and operators to the DHS and ICE modernization and system development efforts. I applied my knowledge of ICE’s programmatic needs to maintain and modernize our Law Enforcement computer systems as well as develop the future state of these systems. I also used my expertise to coordinate our case management and biometric efforts across Governmental Departments and Agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of State, FBI, and others.As the ICE Biometrics PM and Subject Matter Expert, I acted as the Law Enforcement Representative from ICE and DHS for the IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability project. I sat on the Interoperability Strategy and Policy Team and the Integrated Project Team, as well as many other project boards for this Congressionally mandated project to make the FBI’s IAFIS database interoperable with the DHS IDENT database. I worked to help author a ground-breaking MOU that was signed between the Department of Justice, FBI, DHS, Department of State, and ICE. I helped to oversee the implementation of the Interim Data Sharing Model (iDSM) and Interim Operating Capability (IOC) phases of this project and worked towards the Full Operating Capability (FOC) which will bring access to all of DHS and FBI’s biometric and enforcement data to all Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies.

Counter Smuggling, Human Trafficking, National Security. While working as a Special Agent in Los Angeles I had the opportunity to work in several programmatic areas including Anti-Smuggling/ Human Trafficking; National Security/Counterterrorism Unit; and the Criminal Alien Apprehension Program. I worked in the Anti-Smuggling Unit for approximately six years and was the case agent for several notable cases including Operation Trap Door, an HQ Category 1 “significant case” that resulted in the conviction of 16 defendants, two of whom received life sentences in Federal Prison. Operation Rising Star involved the trafficking of Mexican women into Los Angeles for the purposes of forced prostitution. Operation Great Basin involved the Golden State Bus lines and the transportation of Illegal Aliens in the United States. I also had experience working in the early stages of both Operation Predator and the NSEERS programs.