By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
The Office of Inspector General has officially cleared DEA official Richard Dobrich of wrongdoing. He retired in October as the Senior Executive Service Regional Director of DEA’s Andean Region (Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela).
The ordeal began when the DEA received an anonymous complaint in August alleging Dobrich directed Colombian drivers working for the U.S. Embassy in Bogota “to procure sex workers.” The Associated Press subsequently reported on the allegation.
A Dec. 7 letter obtained by ticklethewire.com from the DEA’s Principal Deputy Administrator Preston L. Grubbs to Dobrich stated:
On August 28, 2018, OIG initiated this investigation in response to an anonymous letter received on August 22, 2018. The anonymous author alleged that you have violated DOJ policy. The OIG investigation revealed no evidence to support this allegation.
Because you have retired from federal service, I have returned the investigative file to OPR administrative closure. If you were still employed by DEA, I would have issued a Letter of Clearance.
Dobrich wrote a column in ticklethewire.com in October titled: “Cowardly Anonymity, False Accusations, Betrayal, Lost Leadership and Tabloid News.”
The column in part read:
Don’t confuse my situation with the current upheaval in D.C. Mine is not a battle between Red versus Blue, nor He Said versus She Said, nor Accuser versus Accused.
Mine is a story of absurd and unfounded allegations, official leaks, a leadership vacuum, and tabloid press from a supposedly responsible news organization.
I find myself as the subject of a now-debunked anonymous and maliciously false letter which was sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
I was accused of engaging in the Colombian sex trade, i.e., soliciting prostitutes while serving as the DEA Regional Director. More specifically, the allegation stated that I directed my local staff to assist me in this despicable conduct.
I was not accused of this phantom behavior by anyone involved in the sex trade – no victims have accused me of any such abhorrent behavior – and let me be clear here, I fully recognize that the sex industry in Colombia has nothing but victims – usually young women with severe economic hardships or deplorable histories of sexual abuse at home during their adolescence.
