DigitalCommons@NYLS

Title

Myles J. Ambrose, Class of 1952, former Commissioner of the US Customs Bureau and leader of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, the precursor to today’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Creator

New York Law School

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Description

Myles J. Ambrose, Class of 1952, was the former Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Bureau and leader of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, the precursor to today’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). A former federal prosecutor, he built a reputation as a crime fighter in the Treasury Department in the 1950s and led a commission in the 1960s to root out organized crime in New York City’s waterfront. He became the first drug enforcement czar of the United States and greatly expanded the federal government’s powers to control drug trafficking, rising to the position of director of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement and Assistant Attorney General in the Nixon Administration before returning to private practice in 1973.