Busting Drug Dealers: Diaries of a DEA Special Agent shares your stories and experiences from working out in the field for the DEA and how this impacted your life and the lives of the people you encountered. Why was this an important book for you to write?

As I wrote briefly in the book’s Introduction, for decades, I toyed with the idea of writing a novel. The protagonist was to be an intrepid DEA agent. His story would be based upon my personal experiences and those of my fellow special agents. Over time, however, following the loss of my parents, I developed an interest in genealogy and my ancestry. When I learned that I had multiple ancestors who had been American police officers in the 1600s, I began thinking about writing a collection of law enforcement stories relating fictional or imagined experiences of my ancestors, combined with my own true personal experiences, and those of my father and brother (also former law enforcement officers).

In recent years, however, I decided that a memoir would be the appropriate medium for my story. My true-life experiences equaled or surpassed those I might imagine in a fictional novel. More than that, however, I felt a memoir would provide me with the opportunity to explain to my daughters and son, aspects of my life that we have never discussed in depth. By writing my story rather than verbalizing it, I have attempted to provide some level of explanation for my absences, my inattention, and my early prioritization of career over family. In some ways, the book has been a way to bridge a previous lack of communication with my children.

This memoir is a postscript of my professional career. Other than myself and my family, the people impacted by my work are, for the most part, dead and gone. Whether due to their lifestyle(s) or other reasons, I seem to have outlived the individuals I previously investigated and sent to prison. My career was an evolving and ongoing education for me, as well as often being an adrenaline rush. Regardless of all the highs and lows over the years, I loved my job as a DEA Special Agent. I’ve reached a stage in my life where I want to share my adventures.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

When I was a young man, I had a feeling of certainty; feelings of indestructibility and omnipotence. I was one of the “good guys.” Nothing bad could happen to me. The good guys always won. Over the years, however, and especially when facing the facts while writing my book, it was embarrassing to realize how wrong I sometimes was. My prioritization of the job conflicted dramatically with family life. It was difficult to come to terms with my misplaced “machismo,” and the fact that although it provided me with personal goals and self-satisfaction, it negatively affected my family. The murder of my second wife, and the loss of friends (both DEA agents and foreign national police officers) along the way, were also especially difficult.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

My primary goal was to share stories of my career with family and close friends. Once I decided to write the book, I committed myself to learn about self-publishing, and to make my book as professional a product as I could, fully knowing that I may never recoup that expense through book sales. For me, the goal is to tell the story in a way to make it interesting; not to worry about the commercialization of the book.

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be published?

I end Busting Drug Dealers: Diaries of a DEA Special Agent as I leave Lahore, Pakistan, and am promoted into a supervisory field position in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This first book is written from the perspective of a “street agent” in domestic and overseas assignments. I have the material and have begun work on a second book that will begin with my supervisory assignment in San Juan, and follow the remainder of my DEA career through that 3-year assignment, over six additional years assigned as head of DEA foreign operations for five countries in South Asia, two years at DEA headquarters in Washington, DC (with another promotion to oversee all DEA domestic and international chemical investigations), and finally, three post-retirement years working on contract to DEA international operations, identifying, vetting, equipping, and training foreign national police officers for special counternarcotics units to support DEA operations in US Embassies overseas. I do not yet have an anticipated publication date.

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