James C.
Spero
James Spero serves as the Assistant Director for two Transnational Organized Crime Divisions as well as the Investigative Service Division, with oversight of sixteen (16) investigative groups and approximately 350 employees. In this capacity, Mr. Spero has oversight over financial, narcotics, worksite enforcement, document and benefit fraud, criminal gang exploitation, undercover operations, asset forfeiture and the victim assistance program as well several targeting and fusion centers.
In his last field assignment, Mr. Spero was the Special Agent in Charge for the Tampa, Florida area of responsibility (AOR) with direct oversight of all immigration and customs related investigations within the Middle and Northern districts of Florida. Mr. Spero supervised over 250 law enforcement officers and support personnel in the Tampa AOR. Before that, Mr. Spero was the Special Agent in Charge for Buffalo, New York.
Prior to that assignment, Mr. Spero was the Deputy Assistant Director of the ICE Transnational Crime and Public Safety Division. He had programmatic and operational oversight of the human smuggling and trafficking, immigration identity and benefit fraud, worksite enforcement, transnational gangs, commercial fraud and intellectual property rights programs within Homeland Security Investigations. Before that, Mr. Spero served as Unit Chief for the Identity and Benefit Fraud Unit at ICE Headquarters. In that capacity, Mr. Spero had programmatic and operational oversight of all of ICE’s document and immigration benefit fraud related investigations throughout the United States.
Prior to that assignment, Mr. Spero was an Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the ICE Special Agent in Charge, District of Columbia (SAC/DC). Mr. Spero had operational oversight of the identity and benefit fraud, worksite and compliance enforcement, human rights violators and public safety (gangs) programs within the SAC/DC. Mr. Spero was a Supervisory Special Agent in the SAC/DC for the identity and benefit fraud unit and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
As a Special Agent in the Washington District Office, Mr. Spero conducted large-scale immigration fraud and money laundering investigations, international human smuggling investigations and national security investigations, while a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Mr. Spero has an undergraduate degree in economics from St. John’s University in New York, New York.