Beyond the Opioid Epidemic: The Proliferation of Meth in the United States

Mr. Sean R. Mitchell currently serves as the Chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.  Mr. Mitchell is responsible for building bridges, creating new partnerships, and strengthening and supporting relationships between the DEA and other federal agencies, as well as state, local, tribal, and campus law enforcement; national and international law enforcement associations; and others within the broad public safety, law enforcement, and homeland security communities.  Mr. Mitchell has also been serving as DEA's Acting Chief of Media Affairs since June 2020.  Prior to this assignment, Mr. Mitchell was the Chief of DEA's Office of Congressional Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for the development and sustainment of critical relationships with Congress, its committees, subcommittees and staffs to explain and interpret DEA functions, requirements, and authorities in enforcing the Controlled Substances Act. Mr. Mitchell directed all congressional interface for DEA in a period of record congressional engagement in the midst of the opioid epidemic including 11 congressional hearings in 13 months and the negotiation of dozens of provisions of the 2018 SUPPORT Act across the interagency and numerous congressional committees. Prior to this role, Mr. Mitchell served as DEA's appropriations liaison responsible for the briefing and engagement with House and Senate Appropriations Committees for DEA's nearly $3.5 billion budget.   Previously, Mr. Mitchell served as a budget and policy analyst in the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.  He was responsible for the Department's more than $3 billion worldwide humanitarian aid in the midst of complex humanitarian crises in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen. Mr. Mitchell served more than 14 years with the Coast Guard, including 11 years active duty, where he was the Commanding Officer and Executive Officer of 110' patrol boats homeported in Key West, Florida and Miami, Florida.  He conducted at sea law enforcement operations and boarding coordination with multiple international, federal and state agencies including the Bahamian Navy, Haitian Coast Guard, DEA, HSI/ICE, CBP, National Park Service, and multiple Florida sheriff's offices. He was the multi-agency interdiction coordinator for three cocaine seizures totaling 2,286 pounds with a street value of more than $30 million.  Mr. Mitchell has nearly 25 years of government service and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1999. He earned his Masters of Business Administration degree from George Mason University in 2011.   

Matthew G. Donahue was appointed as Deputy Chief of Operations, Office of Foreign Operations, in July 2019.  In this role, Mr. Donahue oversees all DEA foreign operations globally.  He is responsible for establishing key law enforcement strategies and supporting operations aimed at disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal organizations that have the most significant impact on the United States.    Mr. Donahue began his career with DEA in March 1991 as a Special Agent in the Philadelphia Field Division, where he was assigned to an enforcement group and later to the Mobile Enforcement Team. In 1999, Mr. Donahue was transferred to the Barranquilla, Colombia Country Office and two years later, he was relocated to Cartagena, Colombia to open the newly-established DEA office there.    In November 2002, Mr. Donahue was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent in the Bogotà Country Office.  In May 2005, Mr. Donahue was transferred to the New York Field Division's newly-formed Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force.  In May 2008, Mr. Donahue was transferred to DEA's Special Operations Division to serve as a Staff Coordinator where he directed and oversaw DEA operations in the Caribbean and South America. In January 2010, Mr. Donahue was transferred to the Bogotà Country Office to serve as the SOD Staff Coordinator Liaison to the Andean Region. In June 2012, Mr. Donahue was promoted to the position of Assistant Regional Director for the Bogotà Country Office, where he supervised the enforcement investigative groups; the Sensitive Investigative Unit; and the judicial wire intercept programs. In December 2015, Mr. Donahue was appointed as the Special Agent in Charge (Senior Executive Service) of the Caribbean Division. In this capacity, Mr. Donahue directed a unique and hybrid division, both domestic and foreign, in which he was responsible for developing strategies and overseeing regional operations that targeted all levels of drug trafficking, money laundering operations, and the diversion of licit drugs throughout the Caribbean. In November 2017, Mr. Donahue was appointed as the Regional Director of the North and Central Americas Region. In this position, Mr. Donahue oversaw the operations of 20 DEA offices located in Mexico, Canada, and Central America. Mr. Donahue graduated from West Chester University in Pennsylvania with a BA in Criminal Justice and Political Science in 1989.  

Mr. John W. Callery has a total of 35 years of law enforcement experience and began his law enforcement career in 1984 as a Police Officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) for six years. For four of those years, he was detailed to the prestigious USAF Presidential Honor Guard at Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C., serving then President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Callery continued his law enforcement career as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in 1992, initially assigned to the DEA Los Angeles Field Division (LAFD). Mr. Callery received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration from the University of Maryland and a Master's of Science in Counterterrorism-WMD from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2007. He also holds a Master Certificate in Conflict Management from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business. While assigned to the LAFD (1992-2000), Mr. Callery was a member of the OPERATION LEYENDA group and worked arduously on bringing to justice the conspirators in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena in Mexico. In 1995, Mr. Callery was assigned to the LAFD's Mobile Enforcement Team (MET), where he conducted numerous MET deployments to cities suffering from gang violence. These deployments were extremely successful, resulting in the arrests of hundreds of drug traffickers and violent criminal offenders. In 1999, Mr. Callery was chosen for an overseas assignment in Bangkok, Thailand. During his tenure in Bangkok, Mr. Callery controlled high level heroin investigations with US nexus' to include the first Judicial Wire Tap investigation in the history of The Kingdom of Thailand. In 2005, Mr. Callery returned to the United States and was assigned to the DEA International Training Section (TRI) located in Quantico, VA. In this Group Supervisor position, Mr. Callery participated in over 80 overseas training seminars for more than 3,500 participants throughout the world in narcotics enforcement, international money laundering, tactical operations and has conducted high-level terrorism training programs. Mr. Callery also led and managed the DEA Afghanistan Regional Training Teams (RTT) that were deployed in Afghanistan on behalf of DEA/HQS. In September, 2011, Mr. Callery assumed the position of Country Attache of DEA's Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Country Office, where he managed DEA's efforts to identify and dismantle drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in Malaysia and Singapore. He was also the US Embassy's chief liaison officer to those nations' law enforcement and intelligence agency leaders in their respective anti-drug and money laundering efforts. In 2014, Mr. Callery returned to the LAFD as a Group Supervisor, where he led the division's Clandestine Lab Enforcement Group, where he focused his group's attention on PCP manufacturing, criminal street gangs and violent drug trafficking and he led the Regional Methamphetamine Task Force for the LAFD/HIDTA. In August, 2016, Mr. Callery was promoted to Section Chief at DEA/HQS Regional and Local Impact Section (OGR) where he oversaw DEA's domestic operations and managed DEA's Domestic Cartel Initiative (DCI), Domestic Priority Targeting Operations, DEA's assistance to the Violent Reduction Network and Bureau of Indian Country Affairs. In September, 2017, Mr. Callery transferred from DEA/HQS to Honolulu, Hawaii to assume the duties of Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the DEA Honolulu District Office. There he led and managed all DEA operations in the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and Saipan. As the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the San Diego Field Division (SDFD) he is currently leading the men and woman of the SDFD in concentrating on the opioid overdose death investigations, fentanyl laced drugs, US Border and Mexican Cartel operations and the enduring scourge of methamphetamine trafficking in the region.