He started out as a patrol officer in West Baltimore. Now, 25 years later, he's coming back as Maryland's top FBI man.

"I have roots in Baltimore," says Richard M. Mosquera, who was named yesterday as head of the Maryland-Delaware office of the FBI. "When I was a bodyguard for William Donald Schaefer, I saw the transition of the city from the rat-infested pier to the Inner Harbor."

Mosquera, 47, is a 21-year FBI veteran who has traveled the world, from his days in an undercover heroin investigation in Hong Kong to his experiences in Moscow helping to combat Russian organized crime.

But he says coming back to Baltimore has a special significance for him, since this is where he began his career in 1974 as a Baltimore police officer. He worked patrol in the Western District, served as a tactical officer in the Quick Response Team, and for a year and a half was a bodyguard for William Donald Schaefer, then mayor.

"Mr. Schaefer was a wonderful man," Mosquera said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh, where he's been working as special agent in charge of the FBI office there. "It was a great detail to be on because it gave me an opportunity to learn about Baltimore and its politics."

Among those who traveled alongside Schaefer and Mosquera in the late 1970s was Chuck Fawley, the mayor's driver. He recalled Mosquera yesterday as a friendly, outgoing sort who enjoyed an occasional drink with friends at the now-defunct Turkey Joe's bar in Fells Point.

Schaefer's staff

"It took a certain type to work on Schaefer's staff, and Rick had the right qualities," Fawley said. "Those guys weren't just police, they were aides and confidantes. We would help Schaefer sometimes prepare little gimmicks he had, like 'Order of the Roses' certificates that he liked to present to people who kept the best-looking house on the block."

Occasionally, the bodyguards would also have to act as drivers for Schaefer's longtime companion, Hilda Mae Snoops.

"There was a lot of things they were expected to do," Fawley said. "You wouldn't have survived if you were just being a policeman all the time."

Mosquera said his early days on the city police force opened his eyes and taught him to do things he never thought he'd be doing. One day, while working the Western District, he helped a woman give birth to a baby boy.

"I was 21 back then and Baltimore helped me grow up really quick," he recalled. "It taught me the value of life. The streets were very active. We had six police officers killed."

Mosquera will be taking over the Maryland office in about three months. He is replacing David R. Knowlton, who was promoted to deputy assistant director at FBI headquarters in Washington.

Internet project

Among the projects that Mosquera will be overseeing in his new job will be the FBI's nationwide Internet project, Operation Innocent Images. The task force, based out of Maryland field offices, investigates child pornographers and sex offenders by sending agents online posing as children.

But he said it's too early to say what priorities he will be setting for the office.

Before heading the Pittsburgh office, which he took over in mid-1997, Mosquera was the chief of the Organized Crime/Drug Operations Section of the FBI in Washington, overseeing a division of about 1,000 agents.

Investigations overseen

During that time he oversaw investigations into Mafia-type organizations in the United States, as well as organized crime in Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe.

In 1989, as the leader of an FBI task force in New York City, he and other federal agents investigated what was then considered the largest international heroin distribution network in the world.

Mosquera traveled to Southeast Asia, Europe and Canada, and the case led to the seizure by agents of 850 pounds of 98 percent pure heroin from a home in Queens, N.Y.

More than 70 people were arrested, including several in Hong Kong.

Change of plans

Law enforcement wasn't the career path he'd originally intended. After growing up in New York City, Mosquera went to Trenton State College in New Jersey on a wrestling scholarship, thinking he might become a gym teacher.

He ended up majoring in criminal justice, and after graduation he signed on with the Baltimore police.

"It was extremely challenging back then," he said. "I'm looking forward to going back."

Pub Date: 3/13/99