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Phila. FBI head Edward Hanko to retire next month

Edward J. Hanko, the FBI's top agent in Philadelphia, will retire next month after a 29-year career with the bureau, he announced to agents Tuesday.

File: Edward J. Hanko has spent 29 years with the bureau. (CHARLES FOX/Staff Photographer)
File: Edward J. Hanko has spent 29 years with the bureau. (CHARLES FOX/Staff Photographer)Read more

Edward J. Hanko, the FBI's top agent in Philadelphia, will retire next month after a 29-year career with the bureau, he announced to agents Tuesday.

The Wilkes-Barre native has led the Philadelphia division - the bureau's eighth-largest office - since 2013, and oversaw an investigative force with an expanded focus on counterterrorism, cyber crime and public corruption probes.

In an e-mail to colleagues, Hanko, 55, said he had accepted a position as "vice president [for] global security for a Fortune 500 company" and would leave his current post July 31 - two years short of the FBI's mandatory retirement age.

Hanko did not respond to calls for comment Tuesday about his future position or his retirement, which had not been officially announced by the bureau.

Under his watch, the Philadelphia division completed investigations that led to the conviction of former state Treasurer Rob McCord on extortion charges, and the dismantling of the top leadership of a Philadelphia Ironworkers local, whose members resorted to violence to maintain their grip on city jobs.

Other high-profile investigations, including those of five former Traffic Court judges and an elite city police narcotics squad on corruption charges, were less successful in the courtroom but prompted significant changes.

Responding to the federal probe, state lawmakers abolished Traffic Court in 2013. Several of the drug squad's former cases have been tossed out in Common Pleas Court.

Known for his broad smile and gregarious nature, Hanko has been credited with strengthening relationships between his office and state and local law enforcement agencies in violent crime and narcotics investigations.

The Philadelphia division of the FBI includes more than 500 agents and support staff in offices covering half the state and three counties in South Jersey.

Prior to arriving here, Hanko had worked in a half-dozen postings, including stints in Scranton, Newark, Detroit, the FBI Academy and Cincinnati, where he served as southern Ohio's top agent for more than a year. He worked for five years as a Baltimore police officer before joining the bureau in 1989.

Upon his return to Pennsylvania two years ago, Hanko said he hoped it would be his last stop before retirement.

As of Tuesday, his successor had not been named.