WASHINGTON — The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogotá last fall instead of taking one of the agency’s 106 planes.
The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange acting Administrator Michele Leonhart’s Oct. 28-30 trip to Colombia with an outside company.
The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades.
Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executives from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress debated whether to bail out the auto industry.
William Brown, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s aviation division, said he had asked DEA contractor L-3 Communications to arrange the flight because the plane that ordinarily would have flown the administrator was grounded for scheduled maintenance. He said he didn’t question the cost at the time.
“Was it excessive? I guess you could look at it that way, but I don’t think so,” he said. “. . .We do our best to keep costs under control. I think the DEA is very conservative compared to other agencies.”
Last fiscal year, the DEA’s aviation division spent about $76 million. The agency flies its planes for law enforcement operations and drug surveillance throughout the nation and the world, according to the DEA’s website.
The arrangement last fall was the first time the aviation division hired an outside company for a flight, Brown said. Usually, the DEA flies one of its own planes.
If one of the agency’s jets isn’t available for official trips, the DEA can borrow one from another federal agency to avoid racking up unnecessary costs to taxpayers.
However, Brown said he didn’t consider seeking a loaner plane from another federal agency, although he said he had at least a week to schedule the flight.
Brown said the administrator couldn’t have taken a commercial flight because she and other officials who were traveling with her were under “specific” threat in Colombia at the time.
