High-ranking DHS border official escorted from office while authorities conduct search

An official tasked with tracking cross-border threats for the Department of Homeland Security was escorted from his office by federal authorities.

Investigators on Monday afternoon searched the office of Brian Sulc, executive director of the Transnational Organized Crime Mission Center at DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis in Washington, and he was taken from the building flanked by security guards and authorities from the Federal Protective Service, reported Rolling Stone.

“He is a big deal,” said a source with direct knowledge of the search. “He does the border, all the big issues and crises. This is why this is all so shocking.”

FPS, a DHS law enforcement agency that protects the department and federal buildings, took Salc to another building on campus for questioning, sources said, although the reason for the investigation was not clear.

Sulc, whose office has been sealed shut with crime tape, is a career official who oversees the office that produces intelligence assessments on border security, opioids and other high-stakes policy issues.

He testified in March before the House Committee on Homeland Security on his office's role on President Joe Biden's National Drug Control Strategy team to combat the opioid epidemic, and Sulc reports to DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis Ken Wainstein, who DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.