Francis M. "Bud" Mullen Jr. (14 December 1934-) was Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from 10 July 1981 to 1 March 1985, succeeding Peter B. Bensinger and preceding John C. Lawn.
Biography[]
Francis M. Mullen Jr. was born in New London, Connecticut in 1934, and he served in the US Air Force from 1953 to 1957 before becoming a New London policeman in 1957 and an FBI special agent in 1962. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed him acting Administrator of the DEA, and he was confirmed on a permanent basis on 21 January 1982. He served until 1985, and his tenure saw DEA agent Jaime Kuykendall attempt to convince Mullen to focus more resources towards taking down Guadalajara Cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, only for Mullen to inform Kuykendall that the State Department almost never gave the DEA what it wanted, and that the administration would ignore Kuykendall's important report. He later became director of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Commission.