The Owensboro Area World Affairs Council will hold a free public lecture on Wednesday, March 27, on the fentanyl crisis in Kentucky. Bruce Passmore, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Homeland Security Investigation, will present “Combatting Illicit Opioids from Beijing to the Bluegrass State.”
The event begins at 7 p.m. at Rogers Hall inside Kentucky Wesleyan’s Winchester Center. The organization’s president, Angela Ash, said it is free and open to the public, as are all their events.
“Our mission is to advance global understanding, which means bringing experts to Owensboro to speak on current issues,” Ash said. “Our Board is passionate about educating the community on all global issues, including serious problems like fentanyl.”
Ash said the board hopes attendees will walk away enlightened and informed.
“We know that ASAC Passmore will educate attendees on the global impact of opioids and the relevance for us in Owensboro,” she said. “An informed community is an empowered community, so we look forward to his professional insights since he is on the frontline combatting illicit opioids.”
Passmore is stationed in Louisville, KY, for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Department of Homeland Security’s principal investigative component. He is responsible for administrative and operational oversight of HSI efforts in all 120 counties within the Commonwealth.
HSI investigates, disrupts, and dismantles transnational criminal organizations and terrorist networks that threaten or seek to exploit the customs and immigration laws of the United States.
Before this assignment, Passmore was the Supervisory Special Agent of the Global Trade Investigations Group and Certified Undercover Operation in Tampa, Florida. In this position, he oversaw HSI Tampa’s global trade investigative efforts to enforce import and export controls to mitigate existing vulnerabilities within the stream of commerce exploited by terrorists, transnational criminal organizations, and illicit state actors.
Under the auspices of the Certified Undercover Operation, Passmore oversaw operational support in the form of undercover assets and technical capabilities to the HSI Tampa area of responsibility. During his tenure with HSI, he has served as the Senior HSI Liaison Officer to a Department of Defense Joint Interagency Task Force and in HSI field offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Little Rock, Arkansas.
