Special Agent in Charge
United States Department of Justice
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
El Paso Field Division

Mr. Gonzalez is a native of Cuba who began his law enforcement career in August 1972 as a Deputy Sheriff for the County of Los Angeles, California. In 1973 he joined the Huntington Park Police Department where he worked as a patrolman while attending California State University in Los Angeles. He graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice in 1976, and in 1978 he joined the DEA as a Special Agent in the Los Angeles Field Division.

In 1983 Mr. Gonzalez was transferred to San Jose, Costa Rica where he served as Assistant Country Attaché. In 1987 he was promoted to Group Supervisor in Mexico City, and in 1989 he was assigned to the Inspection Division at DEA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he served as a Unit Chief in the Office of Security Programs and later as an Inspector in the Office of Professional Responsibility. In 1992 he was promoted as the DEA Advisor to the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Southern Command in Panama where he served until 1994. Mr. Gonzalez returned to Washington as Chief of the Drug Suppression Section in the Office of Cocaine Investigations, and in 1995 took over as Chief of the South America Section in the Office of International Operations, where he was in charge of DEA operations in South America. In January 1998 he reported to the Miami Field Division as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge, and later that year he was promoted to the Senior Executive Service of the United States as Associate Special Agent in Charge.

Mr. Gonzalez has received several performance awards while assigned to foreign and domestic DEA offices. He has participated in numerous undercover assignments and complex criminal investigations involving domestic and international drug trafficking organizations. As Advisor to the Southern Command and as a Headquarters Section Chief he provided direction and supervision to implement DEA policy in Latin America. As Associate Special Agent in Charge in Miami he was responsible for administration, Division 1 consisting of two enforcement groups, technical operations, and offices in the Florida Keys and The Bahamas; Division 4 which consists of four enforcement groups assigned to the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA); the Orlando District Office, and the Jacksonville District Office which covers Resident Offices in Tallahassee, Panama City, Pensacola, and Gainesville.

On January 18, 2001, Mr. Gonzalez was reassigned as the Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso Field Division, El Paso, Texas, where he is responsible for DEA operations in West Texas and the State of New Mexico, including offices in El Paso, Alpine, and Midland, Texas; and Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Mr. Gonzalez has been elected by DEA Hispanic Employees to the DEA Hispanic Advisory Committee for three consecutive terms, and has served twice as Chairperson of the Committee. He is a member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and is a Past National President of the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association (HAPCOA).

Mr. Gonzalez and his wife Rosa have been married 29 years and have three children. Their oldest child, a graduate of George Mason University, is a DEA Special Agent in Southern California.