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Homeland Security 5 Year Anniversary 2003 - 2008, One Team, One Mission Securing the Homeland

Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement Uttam Dhillon

On May 12, 2006, Uttam Dhillon was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as the first Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Dhillon serves as the primary policy advisor to the Secretary for Department-wide counternarcotics issues, is responsible for developing policies that will unify the Department's counternarcotics activities, and coordinates efforts to monitor and combat connections between illegal drug trafficking and terrorism.

Mr. Dhillon previously served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General with the United States Department of Justice. His duties included advising and assisting the Deputy Attorney General in formulating and implementing Department of Justice policies and programs relating to explosives, firearms, capital punishment, violent crime and gangs.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Dhillon was the Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Mr. Dhillon has also served in two other staff positions in the House of Representatives: as the Policy Director for the Republican Policy Committee and as a Senior Investigative Counsel for the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

From 1990 to 1997, Mr. Dhillon was an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles where he worked with federal and local law enforcement agencies directing complex investigations of major narcotics trafficking organizations. He successfully prosecuted narcotics trafficking, money laundering, alien smuggling, and gun possession crimes and prepared and argued appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Dhillon has been associated with the firms of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, and Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary). He graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. Mr. Dhillon also earned a Master of Arts degree in psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1984 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from California State University, Sacramento in 1982. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the District of Columbia Bar, all District Courts of California, and the Fourth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.

This page was last reviewed/modified on March 12, 2007.