Our Team

Mr. John W. Callery has a total of 35 years of law enforcement experience, beginning his career as a Police Officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1984. He was detailed to the prestigious USAF Presidential Honor Guard in Washington, D.C., serving then President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Callery continued his law enforcement career as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in 1992, initially assigned to the DEA Los Angeles Field Division (LAFD).  Mr. Callery received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science in Counterterrorism-WMD from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2007. He also holds a Master Certificate in Conflict Management from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business.

Mr. Callery started his DEA career in the Los Angeles Field Division as a member of the OPERATION LEYENDA task force and worked arduously on bringing to justice the conspirators in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Mexico. In 1995, Mr. Callery was assigned to the LAFD’s Mobile Enforcement Team (MET), where he conducted numerous deployments to cities suffering from drug related violence. These deployments were extremely successful, resulting in the arrests of hundreds of drug traffickers and violent criminal offenders.

In 1999, Mr. Callery was chosen for an overseas assignment in Bangkok, Thailand. During his tenure in Bangkok, he controlled high level heroin investigations with US nexuses to include the first Judicial Wire Tap investigation in the history of The Kingdom of Thailand.

In 2011, Mr. Callery assumed the position of Country Attaché of DEA’s Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Country Office, where he managed DEA’s efforts to identify and dismantle drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in Malaysia and Singapore.

In 2014, Mr. Callery returned to the LAFD as a Group Supervisor, where he led the division’s Clandestine Lab Enforcement Group, where he focused his group’s attention on PCP manufacturing, criminal street gangs and violent drug trafficking.

In 2016, Mr. Callery was promoted to Section Chief at DEA/HQS Regional and Local Impact Section (OGR) where he oversaw DEA’s domestic operations and managed DEA’s Domestic Cartel Initiative (DCI), Domestic Priority Targeting Operations, DEA’s assistance to the Violent Reduction Network and Bureau of Indian Country Affairs.

In 2017, Mr. Callery assumed the duties of Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the DEA Honolulu District Office. There he led and managed all DEA operations in the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and Saipan.

From 2019 to 2021 he was the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the San Diego Field Division where he led the men and woman of the SDFD in concentrating on the opioid overdose death investigations, fentanyl laced drugs, Mexican Cartel operations, US/Mexico interdiction efforts and the enduring scourge of methamphetamine trafficking in the region.

Mr. Callery is a professional public speaker and has conducted hundreds of lectures around the world on a myriad law enforcement and counter terrorism topics. Between 2005-2011 Mr. Callery conducted over 70 DEA International Training seminars on professional law enforcement best practices in over 50 nations around the globe.

Mr. Callery is married, enjoys golf, snorkeling, and tennis and is an avid sports fan.