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For Immediate Release
July
10, 2006
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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Charles
Cunningham Appointed Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond
Field Office
FBI
Director Robert S. Mueller III today announced the appointment
of Charles J. Cunningham as Special Agent in Charge of the
FBI's Richmond Field Office. The Richmond Division is made
up of a headquarters city and six resident agencies in Bristol,
Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Roanoke, and
Winchester, Virginia.
Mr.
Cunningham is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1972 until 1976. Before
joining the FBI, he was a local police officer in Pennsylvania
from 1978-80 and a State Trooper with the Pennsylvania State
Police, from 1981-86.
Mr.
Cunningham brings to the position extensive management experience,
informed by over 20 years of service in the FBI. He has
worked in Albany; New York City; Washington D.C.; Miami;
and New Orleans Field Offices. He joined the FBI as a special
agent in January 1986; he completed his agent training at
Quantico, Virginia, and was subsequently assigned to the
Albany, N.Y. Field Office where he worked a variety of criminal
matters including bank frauds, gangs, drugs, and white collar
crimes.
Mr.
Cunningham transferred to the New York Field Office and
was assigned to Queens, New York. He worked on the squad
handling the Luchese Organized Crime Family and assisted
in the famous "Windows" case, which brought down
the hierarchy of the Luchese family. Mr. Cunningham was
later assigned to a Colombian Drug Squad where he worked
many large scale drug investigations. He was the case agent
on several cases, utilizing extensive wiretaps and undercover
operations to advance the investigations which resulted
in large seizures of money and drugs.
In
April 1995, Mr. Cunningham was promoted to Supervisory Special
Agent (SSA). He was transferred to FBI Headquarters and
was assigned to the Criminal Investigative Division. He
was later transferred to the Special Operations Division
(SOD), a joint DEA, FBI and USCS effort aimed at addressing
the largest Mexican Drug Cartels.
Mr.
Cunningham subsequently transferred to the Miami Field Office
in October 1997 and assumed supervisory responsibilities
of an Italian Organized Crime Squad. He was later given
the duties as the Miami Drug Program Coordinator and supervisor
of a Colombian Drug Squad in 1999 until October 2001. In
2002, he was awarded the OCDETF Case of the Year Award for
his supervision of the Colombian Drug investigation entitled,
"Operation Resurrection".
In
October 2001, Mr. Cunningham was promoted to Assistant Special
Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the New Orleans Field Office.
In the aftermath of 9/11/2001, he was assigned to oversee
all FBI counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cyber crime,
public corruption, white collar crime and administrative
matters for the FBI in the state of Louisiana. He expanded
the Joint Terrorism Task Force, formed the first Field Intelligence
Group (FIG) and Counterintelligence Squad, and oversaw sensitive
public corruption matters. He also supervised the recovery
efforts related to the Space Shuttle Discovery after it
exploded over parts of Louisiana.
Mr.
Cunningham was promoted to Senior Executive Service in June
2004 and assumed the duties of Section Chief in the Bureau's
Violent Crimes Section (VCS), which had national oversight
regarding bank robberies, fugitives, transportation crimes,
kidnapping, crimes against children, and Indian Country
matters. In November 2004, he was reassigned as the Section
Chief of the FBI's Organized Crime Section (OCS) which has
national oversight of all organized crime matters to include
the La Cosa Nostra (LCN), Italian OC, Eurasian/Balkan OC,
Middle Eastern Criminal Networks, and Asian/African criminal
enterprises. He was instrumental in establishing several
new initiatives, and he oversaw several overseas missions
that included the Pantheon Project, Southeast Asia Initiative,
Budapest Project, and the Southeast European Cooperative
Initiative (SECI). In addition, he hosted numerous international
working groups that included FBI/RCMP; Japanese; Russian;
Chinese; Central European Working Group; Thailand; Vietnam;
and the Italian National Police Working Group.
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