An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pleaded guilty on Wednesday to stealing cash during an Oct. 18 drug raid in suburban Cleveland, Scripps Media reported.

Steven Campbell was part of a task force that raided a home in Lyndhurt. The drug suspect told agents he had a couple pounds of marijuana in a blue bag in the garage and between $45,000 and $50,000 under a dresser, Tickle the Wire reported. Campbell, along with at least one DEA agent, found the cash. Campbell began stuffing fistfuls of cash into his pockets, an act that an agent witnessed and told another agent about.

When confronted, Campbell said the only money he had was his personal money. After resisting a search, Campbell was handcuffed. Before ATF agent Ed Dabkowski could search Campbell, the cash fell out of Campbell’s pockets. It was estimated that he took more than $46,000.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys office for the Eastern District of Michigan because the the Northern District of Ohio is recused from the case.

Detriot U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said, “Just as we hold public officials accountable for wrongdoing, we hold federal agents accountable as well.”

An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will plead guilty to stealing cash during an Oct. 18 drug raid in suburban Cleveland, Tickle the Wire reported.

Steven Campbell is scheduled to enter a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Cleveland on Dec. 22 to a theft charge stemming from the raid.

Campbell was part of a task force that raided a home in Lyndhurt, Ohio. The drug suspect told agents he had a couple pounds of marijuana in a blue bag in the garage and between $45,000 and $50,000 under a dresser, Tickle the Wire reported. Campbell, along with at least one DEA, found the cash. Campbell began stuffing fistfuls of cash into his pockets, which an agent witnessed and told another agent.

When confronted, Campbell said the only money he had was his personal money. After resisting a search, Campbell was handcuffed. Before ATF agent Ed Dabkowski could search Campbell, the cash fell out of Campbell’s pockets. It was estimated that he took well in excess of $1,000.

Kenneth Melson testifies at a hearing on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives's budget in March (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

During a time of increased gun-related violence on the Mexican border, the White House cannot find anyone to fill the position of director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

White House officials say they are having a tough time filling the role because a nominee would likely face opposition from the gun lobby, including the National Rifle Association, reported Newsweek .

In fact, Kenneth Melson, the acting director of ATF, was recently demoted to deputy director because the law limits how long acting chiefs can run federal agencies. Critics say the lack of a permanent director has made the ATF more cautious in its investigations of gun-trafficking rings and firearms dealers, according to Newsweek.

“The message that’s sent to the employees is, ‘You don’t matter,’” said Jim Cavanaugh, who recently retired as the agent in charge of the Nashville office.

But Melson disputed the notion that ATF has backed off big cases. He said the lack of a permanent head hasn’t had “any impact” on the agency’s operations. “I emphatically deny that the agency has stood still,” said Melson.

Main Justice reported last month that an unpublished strategic plan for the agency for the next seven years gives the agency a less prominent role in investigating terrorism – leaving the issue primarily to the FBI. Instead the agency intends to focus on combating violent crime.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is getting back to basics and will emphasize its core mission of combating violent crime, conceding the lead role of investigating and stopping terrorism to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to an unpublished draft of its new strategic plan.

Headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

The draft plan, which covers fiscal 2010 through 2016, will focus on ten areas including criminal groups and gangs, and illegal fire arms trafficking, among others.

The previous strategic plan — which covered fiscal 2004 to 2009 — contained a mission statement that said the bureau’s work would seek to “prevent terrorism, reduce violent crime and to protect the public in a manner that is faithful to the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

But under the new plan, the ATF is taking on a less prominent role in investigating terrorism – leaving the issue primarily to the FBI – as it instead refocuses on combating violent crime.

“The terrorism police in the United States are the FBI, rightfully so, that’s where they should be focused,” said an ATF official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been finalized. “We believe that our position, the way we best serve this country, is by impacting violent crime.”

The ATF will continue to assist the FBI by providing explosives expertise in, but not leading, investigations that are classified as “terrorist bombings.” That includes incidents tied to recognized terrorist organizations including domestic terrorism such as acts by animal- or environmental-rights extremists. According to ATF, 99 percent of all bombings in the U.S. are not tied to terrorist organizations and fall under its jurisdiction.

“We have a definite role in terrorism and national security, we regulate the tools of the trade,” said the ATF official. “But is our primary mission terrorism? No, it’s not.”

ATF went through a period “terrorism envy” after Sept. 11, the official conceded.

“But our responsibility, post 9/11, is really in the violent crime area,” the official said. “The entire focus of this plan is around reducing violent crime in America and protecting the public from incidents involving guns, explosives and fire.”

To demonstrate the changed focus, ATF has changed its slogan to “At The Frontline Against Violent Crime.” Previously, the ATF billed itself as “on the frontlines in our nation’s war against terror.”

But conflicts between the FBI and the ATF remain ongoing.

A DOJ Inspector General’s audit report issued last October found that the FBI and the ATF were not coordinating their efforts.

In testimony before a House panel last month, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said the agencies’ explosives investigators would race to the scene of an incident in the hopes of “calling dibs” on a case. As some agents acknowledged to Fine, they believed “possession is nine-tenths of the law.” The Deputy Attorney General is meeting this month with working groups from both agencies to resolve the conflicts.

Priorities Include Gangs, Bombs and Gun Trafficking

The draft of the plan, in the final editing stages, lists ten core functions of the bureau. ATF’s strategic leadership team prioritized six of those core functions under the new plan. Four of the prioritized core functions are mission activities – criminal groups and gangs; explosives bombs, and bombings; illegal firearms trafficking; and fire and arson. Two others are management priorities in the areas of workforce and modernization.

Core functions not listed as priorities under the new plan are alcohol and tobacco; firearms criminal possession and use; firearms industry operations; and explosives industry operations.

Main Justice reported earlier this month that ATF had not yet published a strategic plan, which was supposed to go in to effect at the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2009. According to ATF officials, over the past two years the bureau has been implementing the strategic goals, even though the plan has not yet been publicly released.

Several trends and new threats have emerged since the last strategic plan, according to the report. The Internet has raised new issues for ATF because it makes it easier for trafficking guns and also makes it easy to access information about building bombs.

“A common trend emerging in explosives and bombing incidents is the increased use of [Improvised Explosive Devices],” according to the report. “The Internet has made the knowledge available to a broader range of the public than ever before, including those who would use that knowledge to commit violent crimes. Many of the materials required to produce an explosive device are common household goods, available with minimal or no regulation.”

ATF plans to prevent such incidents involving homemade explosives by partnering with various law enforcement agencies and preventing the misuse of the materials used to make homemade bombs. They will focus on the means of acquisition and distribution of such materials, according to the strategic plan.

The economic downturn may lead to an increase in arson for profit because small business owners and individuals may be under financial pressure and intentionally burn their properties to collect insurance, according to the plan.

In addition, the trafficking of firearms from the U.S. to Mexico is an increasing problem. ATF has requested to make permanent the new offices it established along the border using stimulus funds as part of the Gunrunner Project.

Measuring Performance Indicators

The new strategic plan is designed to be easy for the average citizen to read and comprehend, the ATF official said. Under the new plan, instead of technical definitions, the congressional budget submissions would read more like report cards with various assignments that add up to an overall grade. A performance index will weight each performance indicator in relation to one of the ATF’s 10 core functions.

“Anyone can look at these and say, okay, these are pretty straightforward statements,” the ATF official said.

According to the draft, the ATF’s Strategic Leadership Team “may change which performance indicators are included in the index at any time, but recognizes that such changes may positively or negatively affect the index.”

The official said the indexed approach is of interest to the Office of Management and Budget and the Justice Department.

A draft of the plan is available below.

ATF Strategic Plan FY 2010-2016 (Draft)

The nation’s law enforcement agency responsible for investigating and preventing the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives is operating without a strategic plan in place for fiscal 2010. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is requesting funding for fiscal 2011 based on a seven-year plan that is still undergoing internal evaluation.

ATF Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson testifies on the ATF budget for 2011 (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

Even though ATF’s strategic plan for 2010-2016 was supposed to be in place at the beginning of fiscal 2010 — which began on Oct. 1, 2009 — the bureau has requested $1.16 billion for fiscal 2011 based on the yet-to-be-released goals of that plan.

In broad terms, the 2011 budget proposal presented to Congress in February says that the strategic plan for 2010-2016 is built around the priorities of dealing with illegal firearms trafficking, criminal groups and gangs, explosives, bombs and bombings, fire and arson. Management priorities include the workforce and modernization.

The budget proposal seems to signal that there will be significant changes in the strategic plan — several outcome measurements are set to be discontinued in fiscal 2011, according to the budget proposal. Only a draft version of the strategic plan, not available to the public, has been written so far and is still being finalized, according to an ATF spokeswoman.

But Kenneth E. Melson, the deputy director of the bureau, told Main Justice that the changes signaled in the budget request are just changes in the way ATF plans to measure its performance, and that the new strategic plan would not be a “dramatic change in direction or priorities.”

Meanwhile, Melson was on Capitol Hill Thursday to present the bureau’s fiscal 2011 budget request to House appropriators. Testifying before the House Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, Melson advocated making permanent the outposts established with funding from the 2009 economic stimulus package to combat firearms trafficking along the Mexican border. He answered questions on the agency’s budget request for fiscal 2011 and highlighted some of the successes of “Project Gunrunner,” which was set up to combat firearms trafficking along the Mexican border.

As part of the stimulus package, ATF was given more than $10 million to establish additional Project Gunrunner teams in New Mexico, California and Texas. As of mid-February, 190 special agents 145 industry operations investigators and 25 support staffers had been assigned to four Southwest border states as part of Project Gunrunner, an effort that begin in 2006.

House Appropriations Hearing Highlights

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) questions Melson (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

Gun Enforcement Strategy. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), a strong supporter of gun owners’ rights, asked Melson if the Obama administration had passed down any instructions regarding the regulation of firearms.

“At this point we have not received any new direction from them to change our manner of operation,” said Melson.

ATF/FBI Coordination. Under questioning from subcommittee Chairman Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.),  Melson spoke about the problems of overlap between the FBI and ATF that were highlighted in a recent report from Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

“I always have a concern — and I hope I’m not speaking out of school – about duplication of responsibilities, because then you do get these, sometimes, clashes of personalities and agencies who may do the same thing in a particular jurisdiction,” said Melson.

Melson also said he was satisfied that the FBI and ATF were making the Gang Intelligence Center a success, but said there was always room for improvement.

Other Budget Questions. Representatives highlighted another problem the ATF is dealing with — converting its paper records to digital form. A manual search for gun records can take several times longer than a digital trace, said Mollohan, because specialists have to search through microfilm records.

“In essence what you’re going through is the microfiche, and you may have a roll that has three or four hundred firearms on it and you literally have to go through, scroll through, and look for a particular firearm. I was absolutely appalled and depressed at what they are going through out there. Literally you see pallets of these records come in, and they’re just absolutely overwhelmed.”

How does your budget address that?” asked Rep. Mollohan.

“Right now, we would be struggling severely to change that,” said Melson.

Another continuing problem is the backlog of pending regulatory actions at ATF, which ATF says is due primarily to a staffing shortage among regulation writers, said Melson.