Bill Newell

Biography

Bill retired in Dececember 2018, after a 32+ year career in Federal law enforcement as a Special Agent/Criminal Investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice. Bill spent the first several years of his career along the U.S./Mexico border in El Paso, McAllen and Brownsville, Texas focusing on cartel violence and drugs/guns smuggling activities by these violent cartels. In 1993, Bill was assigned to the DEA Office in Bogota, Colombia where he spent the next 5 years working hand-in-hand with the Colombian National Police combatting Colombian cartels. In 1998, he was transferred to Miami, then Washington D.C., Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, LA, and finally Salt Lake City, where he ended his career. In May 2020, Bill accepted a position as the Rocky Mountain HIDTA Drug Intelligence Officer assigned to the Utah DPS HQ in Taylorsville. Bill, along with Steve Barnes, a CDC Foundation PHA, are partners in the Overdose Response Strategy, a national collaboration between ONDCP and the CDC. During his career Bill most enjoyed his time working collaboratively with his Federal, State, Local, Tribal and International law enforcement peers and carried many of these lifelong friendships into retirement.

Bill was born and raised in Latin America and has been married for over 26 years to a former DEA Intel Analyst he met while assigned to the DEA Colombia Office. They have two sons and enjoy Utah’s great outdoors.