Marking his 20th year in the FBI, Ralph S. Boelter has been named assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.
Source: FBI Minneapolis Division
Boelter, 52, has worked on notable investigations including the unauthorized leak of CIA Agent Valerie Plame’s undercover identity, the Thomas Petters fraud case and the recruitment of several Somali-American men into terrorist group al-Shabaab, according to an FBI press release.
Boelter was most recently leading the Minneapolis, Minn., FBI office. According to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Boelter said he plans to bring some of the lessons he learned in Minnesota to Washington as the new assistant director tackling terrorism. Objective No. 1 is to put a human face to the division, he said.
“We had to be able to show people they could trust me, trust us,” Boelter said of his work in Minnesota, according to the Star-Tribune.
Boelter previously worked in the FBI’s Boston Division investigating white collar crime and violent crime, according to the FBI release. He was later transferred to the Los Angeles Division and oversaw the bureau’s violent crime and criminal enterprise branch, the release states.
Before joining the bureau, Boelter enlisted in the Marines at age 17 and then became a San Diego police officer, according to the Star-Tribune.
“This move presents exciting opportunity for me to be sure, given the continued seriousness and evolving nature of the threat, and counterterrorism’s place as the FBI’s very highest priority,” Boelter said, according to a story by Minnesota Public Radio.
