Scandal-plagued Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Michele Leonhart is expected to resign soon.
Leonhart has run the troubled agency in an acting capacity since November 2007 and was confirmed in December 2010. A recent Justice Department inspector general report revealed DEA agents participated in “sex parties” with prostitutes paid for by Colombia drug cartels, capping a years-long wave of scandals at the agency.
Leonhart’s resignation is on its way, a senior administration official told CBS News Tuesday.
The agency’s corruption and lack of accountability appear to precede Leonhart’s leadership, however. The House Oversight and Government Report Committee recently reported from findings that sexual misconduct has been rampant in the DEA since at least 2001.
The DEA has a $2.02 billion budget, more than 10,000 employees throughout the United States, and 83 offices in 63 foreign countries.
Leonhart has been with the DEA since 1997, where she began as the special agent in charge of the DEA’s San Francisco Field Division — the first woman to ever hold that position in the agency — and worked her way up in status.
