FBI’s Los Angeles unit to name new director
Salvador Hernandez, a native of Mexico City and 23-year veteran of the FBI, will be named the new head of the bureau’s Los Angeles division today.
Hernandez, 49, most recently served as deputy assistant director in the criminal investigative division at FBI headquarters in Washington.
He began his career at the bureau’s Phoenix division in 1984. Four years later, he was transferred to the San Juan division, where he was assigned to domestic terrorism cases and led the FBI’s investigation of the terror organization known as the Macheteros.
In 1991, he moved to the criminal investigative division as a supervisor who managed public corruption and financial crime undercover operations. During the next decade, he also served in the FBI’s divisions in St. Louis and Louisville, Ky.
In 2002, Hernandez was named the FBI’s legal attache in Mexico City and held that job for two years before heading the bureau’s Oklahoma City division. He held that post until returning to FBI headquarters last year.
Hernandez, who was raised in St. Louis and has a law degree from Saint Louis University, replaces J. Stephen Tidwell as head of the FBI’s Los Angeles division.
It is the third largest in the country, after New York City and Washington, with more than 1,200 employees in seven counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
Tidwell, a 24-year FBI veteran who supervised the bureau’s security efforts at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, will return to the bureau’s headquarters in a senior policy position.
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