New agent leads FBI's Albuquerque Field Office
May 2—El Paso native Raul Bujanda, the special agent now in charge of the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office, spent most of his adolescence across the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
His family was there, he said, and it was more affordable than El Paso at the time.
Bujanda returned to the U.S. to attend college and worked as a teacher and special agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service before joining the bureau in 2002, when he began investigating violent crime, gangs and Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations.
He has served in various roles with the FBI, most recently as section chief of the Criminal Investigative Division's National Covert Operations Section at the FBI's headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw all criminal and national security undercover operations.
During a news conference Thursday on his plans for the Albuquerque Field Office, Bujanda, 46, said his experiences as a Mexican American and a resident of Mexico give him a better understanding of the root causes of these issues.
In his new role, Bujanda plans to tackle rising rates of violent crime in New Mexico, pervasive drug issues and national security threats while working with local law enforcement and communities.
Albuquerque, in particular, has seen its homicide counts rise to the highest numbers in the last 20 years.
Drugs like methamphetamine are surging in Northern New Mexico communities. Police believe at least two recent fatal shootings — one at a Santa Fe train station and another in Rio Arriba County — were the result of meth deals gone wrong.
"Drugs across the board are going to influence everything," Bujanda said at the news conference. "And I think, being so close to the border, it's really going to drive a lot of those type of groups — whether it's gangs or social groups — because at the end of the day, it's all about trying to make money."
Meth has a high profit margin and has become easy to produce across the border, he added.
Bujanda plans to work closely with local law enforcement to combat drug trafficking, in part by stopping supply routes in New Mexico and identifying better resources to infiltrate the groups trafficking drugs.
"We're going to be working side by side," he said of local agencies. "I want to get to know them personally, and I want them to get to know the FBI personally, so that whenever a situation might come up ... we're working together collaboratively."
He also highlighted a hope to have a better working relationship with media and the public, and he vowed to be as transparent as possible without compromising investigations.
"The balance is always going to be a little difficult ... but I will always do my part to be able to get you as much as I possibly can," he said.
