The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) was a federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice with the enumerated power of investigating the consumption, trafficking, and distribution of narcotics and dangerous drugs. The BNDD is the direct predecessor of the modern Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

History

thumb|292x292px|right|The Bureau of Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs directly preceded the Drug Enforcement Administration.

thumb|289x289px|Drug abuse coloring book, 1974

Merging the old guard

Prior to the creation of the BNDD, there were two law enforcement agencies dedicated to narcotics enforcement: the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) and the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BADC). These bureaus were organizationally within the structure of the Department of the Treasury and the Food and Drug Administration.

On February 7, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote to Congress;

<blockquote>“This administration and this congress have the will and the determination to stop the illicit traffic in drugs. But we need more than the will and the determination. We need a modern and efficient instrument to transform our plans into action.”

Reorganization Plan #1 was passed by both houses of congress on April 7, 1968, and became effective the following day. The new BNDD, as detailed in the plan, took the enforcement powers of Treasury and the FDA and transferred them to the singular Department of Justice, under the authority of the United States attorney general.

Ingersoll's timeline of tenure as the head of the BNDD is similar to his two main predecessors in federal narcotics enforcement;

  • Levi Nutt was the deputy commissioner of the Narcotics Division from 1919 to 1930 - the entire length of its existence, leaving the new Bureau of Narcotics in scandal before it was taken over by Harry Anslinger.
  • Harry Anslinger was the commissioner of the FBN from 1930 to 1965 - the FBN was merged into the BNDD only three years after his departure, in 1968.

Elvis Presley becomes a federal agent

thumb|355x355px|Elvis and Nixon discussing with Bud Krogh how Elvis could obtain BNDD credentials, and what Elvis could do to assist narcotics enforcement, December 21, 1970.

Elvis Presley, the famous "king" of rock and roll, had been on a campaign to collect a badge from every police department in the country, but the one that he desired most was the badge of a BNDD Federal Agent at Large. Ingersoll insisted that in order for anyone to obtain a badge from the BNDD, they would need to be credentialed as a federal agent, take the oath of office, and agree to a training program. Instead of the position of federal agent at large, Elvis was presented with an equally unique badge. This badge did not declare him an agent, a special agent, a supervisor, or a director. Instead, the badge declared that he was "Elvis Presley." In December 1970, Ingersoll requested the assistance of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Richard Helms in rooting it out.

In January 1971, Helms approved a program of "covert recruitment and security clearance support to BNDD".

The investigation, and many following investigations, prove that Ingersoll was not wrong in many of his suspicions. Evidence exists today that;

  • FBN supervisory agent at large George Hunter White had extrajudicially killed several of his suspects during investigations. While White had retired in 1966, he still had many connections at the BNDD.
  • White's primary undercover operative after 1948, Jacques Voignier, was an operative for the FBN while simultaneously running drugs for the Corsican Brotherhood and running cons for his own personal gain. Voignier was arrested in 1969, the year after the establishment of the BNDD.
  • FBN Agent Dean Unkefer admits in a memoir released in 2015 to having been addicted to narcotics within only a few years of his recruitment into the organization, despite never having done them before joining the bureau.

Activities

Foreign offices

By 1970, the BNDD had nine foreign offices: Most of those narcotics transactions were being controlled from the city of Marseilles, where there was an established power base in the Marseilles mafia - an extension of Union Corse.

However, French historian Andrew Merchant writes that the narcotics trade which had so successfully interrupted by the BNDD and the OCRTIS in "Franco-American cooperation," by 1981 was now no longer centralized within a few families, but had become a drugs milieu, where there was already a present crimes milieu. The Bureau did not have enough funds to purchase a new aircraft, so he bought one under the United States Air Force Bailment Property Transfer Program.

Personnel

In 1971, the BNDD was composed of 1,500 agents and had a budget of some $43 million (which was more than fourteen times the size of the budget of the former Federal Bureau of Narcotics).

Dissolution

On July 1, 1973, the BNDD was merged into the newly formed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

See also

  • United States v. Russell: U.S. Supreme Court case involving the Bureau.
  • List of United States federal law enforcement agencies
  • Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act

References

  • Genealogy, DEA History.