10/05/2026
On behalf of the National Criminal Enforcement Association, we remember a founding member killed in the line of duty, October 4th, 2021.
Arizona DEA Group Supervisor Mike Garbo, NCEA member #10, was shot and killed while conducting criminal interdiction efforts on board an Amtrak train which left Los Angeles bound for New Orleans. The train was stopped at the Tucson station when the shooting occurred. One subject was detained during a drug investigation and the officers were ambushed by the second subject on the top deck of the train car. The results of the shooting left Mike Garbo dead, another DEA agent in critical condition, and an injured yet another Tucson (DEA Task Force) police officer. The suspect who shot the officers barricaded himself in a train bathroom and was later found dead.
Mike Garbo is considered a founding/lifetime member of NCEA. It has been relayed to us that Mike Garbo was the one that suggested creating an organization in honor of Captain Robbie Bishop during Robbie’s funeral procession, having that conversation with another future member of our organization. NCEA may have never formed had it not been for that suggestion.
In an official statement released by the DEA, “Michael G. Garbo joined the DEA in 2005 and served honorably for more than 16 years as a Special Agent and Group Supervisor combatting criminal drug traffickers from the Nogales corridor to Kabul, Afghanistan. Group Supervisor Garbo’s operational expertise, mentorship, and leadership were legendary in the Tucson community. He was universally loved and respected for his leadership, and for his unrelenting passion to protect the safety of the American people. Above all else, he was a devoted and loving father and husband.”
Group Supervisor Mike Garbo used to serve with the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department and was attached to the 20th JDDTF back when Robbie was killed, then eventually moved to become an agent with the Drug Enforcement Association. He had 3 years until retirement.
