James L. Collins
James L. Collins was selected as Chief of Intelligence of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in February 2026. Intelligence Chief Collins brings decades of executive-level leadership across law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, the Department of War, and the interagency.
Throughout his career, Mr. Collins has operated at the intersection of intelligence and execution with experience spanning counternarcotics, counterterrorism, counter threat finance, and transnational organized crime missions. Mr. Collins has held senior roles requiring close coordination across the interagency and with operational elements supporting joint and combatant command priorities.
Most recently, Mr. Collins served as a Senior Executive at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including as Assistant Commissioner for Intelligence and Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs, overseeing enterprise intelligence integration and intelligence support to operational components across the agency.
Throughout his career Mr. Collins has held senior positions, notably serving as the Director for Transnational Organized Crime and Executive Director for the U.S. Council on Transnational Organized Crime under the National Security Council, roles that demanded speed, clarity, and unity of effort when confronting networked adversaries. Mr. Collins also served as Deputy Director of CIA’s interagency Foreign Fighter Task Force where he supervised integrated intelligence and operations support to counterterrorism efforts.
Mr. Collins received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received a Master of Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University.
As DEA Intelligence Chief, Mr. Collins is the principal advisor to the DEA Administrator on all intelligence matters and works daily to achieve DEA mission goals by driving an enterprise-wide intelligence cycle in support of global enforcement operations.