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MICHAEL A. BRAUN,
ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR
From December 2003 to his current assignment, Mr. Braun headed the Office of Special Intelligence and later led the entire Intelligence Division. He was also appointed by the Deputy Attorney General to serve as the first interim director of the new Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Intelligence Fusion Center. Mr. Braun was responsible for leading the formative development of this multi-agency, national drug intelligence center that supports the national drug strategy and our nation’s war on terrorism. Mr. Braun is a distinguished Special Agent who began his law enforcement career in 1975 with the Cape Girardeau Missouri Police Department. Four years later, he joined the ranks of the Illinois State Police and worked largely in narcotics enforcement. Mr. Braun joined the DEA in 1985, where he served as a Special Agent in the St. Louis Division. In 1991, he was promoted to the rank of Supervisory Special Agent and assigned to a special enforcement project in Latin America. He led host nation counterparts and DEA Special Agents on drug enforcement operations in the jungles of South and Central America to disrupt the production and transportation systems supporting the cocaine industry. In 1994, Mr. Braun was transferred to the Houston Division where he led Special Agents and Task Force Officers on multi-agency initiatives that targeted and brought to justice violent drug traffickers operating in South Texas. Mr. Braun was promoted and transferred to DEA Headquarters in 1997 to serve as an Executive Assistant to the DEA Administrator. He was transferred to the Los Angeles Division in 1999 as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge where he had oversight responsibility for several high-profile programs, including the multi-agency Southwest Border Initiative. Mr. Braun was promoted in 2001 to the Senior Executive Service and assigned as the Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Division. He oversaw all of DEA’s operations and programs in Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. In June 2003, shortly after the Iraq invasion by U.S. and coalition partners, Mr. Braun was detailed to the Department of Defense to serve on special assignment in Iraq as the Chief of Staff for the Interim Ministry of Interior, Coalition Provisional Authority. He assisted in creating the new Iraqi National Police Service and Customs and Borders agencies, and with developing plans to rebuild the public safety segment of the Iraqi security infrastructure. Mr. Braun enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps after high school and served from 1971 to 1973 as an infantryman, including limited service in the Republic of Vietnam. He received a BS degree in Criminal Justice in 1977 from Southeast Missouri State University, and he has attended a number of government, military, and private leadership courses, including the Senior Managers in Government Program at Harvard University and the National Executive Institute. He is married to the former Kathleen A. Mayfield, and they have three children. |
As DEA Chief of Operations, Special Agent Michael A. Braun is responsible for leading the worldwide drug enforcement operations of the agency’s 227 domestic and 86 foreign offices, as well as the Special Operations Division, the Aviation Division, and the Office of Diversion Control. He was appointed to this position in February 2005 and is a principal advisor to the DEA Administrator on all enforcement-related matters.