Bucheit named head of FBI in Las Vegas

Laura A. Bucheit has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division.

Bucheit comes to Las Vegas from FBI Headquarters in Washington, where she served as special assistant to Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Bucheit began her career as an FBI agent in February 1996 at the Baltimore Division, where she investigated terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other criminal cases. While assigned there, she worked in an undercover capacity to infiltrate a motorcycle gang involved in large-scale methamphetamine trafficking. She became the Baltimore Division’s first female SWAT team member and the second certified female sniper in FBI history.

This is Bucheit’s second stint in Las Vegas.

In January 2005, she was transferred here from Washington to oversee all FBI international and domestic terrorism investigations in Nevada. As head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, she was responsible for coordinating the efforts of 48 members representing 26 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

In September 2007, Ms. Bucheit returned to FBI Headquarters to serve in the Inspection Division. She was promoted in January 2009 to assistant special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division and then returned to Washington in February 2010 to become Mueller’s special assistant.

Prior to her employment at the FBI, Bucheit was an officer with the San Diego Police Department.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.