Mullen, Francis

Francis Mullen was the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from 1981 to 1985. While he became the acting administrator upon his predecessor Peter Bensinger's retirement, Mullen was formally nominated by President Ronald Reagan in January 1982, and eventually confirmed by the Senate in September 1983; most of his tenure running the DEA was technically in an “acting” capacity.

A former member of the U.S. Air Force, Connecticut police officer, and special agent of the FBI, Mullen took office in the DEA at a time when drug crime was reaching its most serious point. Miami and other parts of Florida had become vital parts of the trafficking routes used by Colombian cocaine cartels, and the competition between these cartels and the street gangs they sold ...