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Agents aided special forces

DEA agents have been working alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan for over four years

Date published: 10/29/2009

By RUSTY DENNEN

Two of the three Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed this week in Afghanistan were working alongside special-operations forces in one of the lesser-known aspects of the war.

Both had a connection to the DEA training academy at Marine Corps Base Quantico.

Special Agent Chad Michael of Quantico and Special Agent Forrest Leamon, who lived in Woodbridge, were assigned to a DEA Foreign Deployed Advisory and Support Team (FAST) in Afghanistan.

Michael E. Weston, another special agent who lived in Washington, worked in DEA's office in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. They were killed Monday in a helicopter crash along with seven members of the U.S. military while on a mission to disrupt arms smuggling and narcotics trafficking in the Badghis province.

Attorney General Eric Holder and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart will travel to Dover Air Force Base tonight to meet the plane carrying the bodies of the agents home.

Both Michael and Leamon lived in Northern Virginia because their units deploy out of Quantico, said DEA spokesman David Ausiello.

Michael, 30, had been assigned to Miami until he was sent to Afghanistan in August. Leamon, 37, had been working in Afghanistan since 2007. Both were involved in a dangerous activity linked to the war: cutting the flow of opium and hashish, and the cash they produce, to the Taliban.

The FAST units work alongside special forces. "It's a fancy way of saying they support counter-narcotics missions," Ausiello said.

"There's a clear nexus between narcotics and terrorism. Terrorists get their money by selling drugs." He declined to say how many agents are working in rugged, mountainous nation where the Taliban has been redoubling its effort to disrupt the upcoming election. But the agency recently acknowledged that as many as 80 agents are assigned there.

In June 2008, the DEA's Operation Albatross in Afghanistan made a 262-ton haul of hashish, a potent form of cannabis. It was the largest drug seizure ever.

DEA has been in Afghanistan since 2005, but began ramping up its drug-interdiction efforts in 2007. The agency has an extensive international presence, with major efforts under way in Mexico. All DEA agents go through training at Quantico, Ausiello said. International training is among its components. Agents also receive basic training, practical applications, tactical, firearms and intelligence training, and courses in investigation, forensics, chemistry, computers, clandestine labs, law and ethics.

DEA Training Academy, justice.gov/dea/programs/training.htm

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com

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Date published: 10/29/2009