Badges, Bad Guys & Busts by KEITH LEIGHTON

Author:KEITH LEIGHTON
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KEITH LEIGHTON
Published: 2021-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

22 - Arrival in Brussels

After returning to Miami, I was soon faced with another situation, a common one in the U.S. Government. We were low on funding. Since I had returned to Miami in June and the end of the fiscal year was always September 30, we were low on money. This was typical in the U.S. government, and I had been through it before. But this time it was different. Normally when that happened, all discretionary spending was halted and the only thing funded was operational costs. Since I had always been a street agent, as long as there were operational funds to cover my investigations, it never really phased me. Now it affected me since a move to a place like Brussels was not considered essential to the overall DEA mission. Consequently, I returned and waited for funding to come through.

What really frustrated me about this was that I had just finished six months of intensive French language training. And I returned to Miami, not exactly a mecca for French speakers. If I had studied Spanish that would have been great. I could go into any store, gas station, supermarket, basically anywhere in Miami and use my Spanish. Hell, I could have boned up on my Spanish just by reading Miller Lite billboards along the highway or listening to any one of numerous Spanish radio stations. But French was different. So, I buckled down and reached into my pocket and purchased a series of French lessons from a local teacher. We met once a week just to keep my French on point. It wasn’t ideal and it was a far cry from five hours a day, but it was something.

To make matters worse, although this would help me in the end, the office in the U.S. Embassy in Brussels was empty at that time. In 1998 there were only two agent positions in Brussels – the Country Attaché and the Assistant Country Attaché. And both had just finished their tours of duty and had returned to the U.S., meaning the office was shuttered. It was just a coincidence that both had finished their tours at the same time. But, regardless, it was not a great look for the DEA in the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. This went on month after month until finally in November, the Deputy Chief of Mission, referred to as the DCM, and the true head of any U.S. Embassy around the world, made a crucial decision.

Allow me to backtrack for minute. Many people think that the U.S. Ambassador is the head of a U.S. Embassy, and he is technically, but these people are usually presidential appointees and just figureheads, whereas the DCMs are career U.S. State Department employees who usually run the show while the ambassador is out and about pushing U.S. interests with kings, queens, and princes. This DCM had to pass the DEA office every day on the way to his office. Finally, after months of passing a closed DEA office, he picked up the phone and called headquarters.

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