Umberg to Be Sworn In as Deputy Drug Czar

Former Assemblyman Tom Umberg will be sworn in as deputy to drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey in a White House ceremony today.

Umberg, 42, will be the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in charge of supply issues, dealing with law enforcement and foreign policy aspects of the nation’s drug policy. He will earn $125,000 a year and will be the only Orange County resident serving in the Clinton administration.

The drug control policy office coordinates the work of 50 federal agencies with the goal of reducing the use and importation of illegal drugs in the country, which the White House estimates is a $50-billion-a-year business.

Umberg, who was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April, promised to use the position to cut drug trafficking off at its source, trying to reach McCaffrey’s target of a 50% reduction in drugs flowing into the country over the next 10 years. Umberg was nominated for the post last September.

Umberg prosecuted drug cases as well as civil-rights and white-collar crimes as assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and Orange County from 1987 to 1990.

He has a home in Villa Park but currently lives in Virginia with his wife, Lt. Col. Robin Umberg, a nurse in the Army Reserve, and their three children.