Head of Drug Enforcement Resigns Post
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WASHINGTON — Francis M. Mullen Jr. resigned Friday as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to take a job in private industry.
Mullen, 50, sent a letter of resignation to President Reagan, saying he was leaving government effective March 1. A spokesman said Mullen is considering two job offers in the private sector.
“I consider it a great honor to have been identified as a Reagan appointee, and my service as administrator of DEA has been the high point of a 27-year law enforcement career,” Mullen said in his letter to the President. Before his DEA appointment in 1981, Mullen was a career FBI official.
Federal law enforcement sources said John C. Lawn, the DEA’s deputy administrator, is the frontrunner to replace Mullen if Reagan decides to pick a career law enforcement official and not make a political appointment.
Mullen was named acting administrator of the agency in July, 1981, in a move intended to forge a closer working relationship between the FBI and DEA.
He became the first career FBI official to take over the DEA.
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