202-905-8885 [email protected]
DEA Survivors Benefit Fund

Frank Fernandez, Jr. was one of five Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agents killed on August 27, 1994, in a plane crash during a reconnaissance mission near Santa Lucia, Peru. This mission was being flown as part of Operation Snowcap, DEA’s cocaine suppression program in Latin America. He was 38 years of age at the time of his death. At the time of his death, Special Agent Fernandez was assigned to the DEA Headquarters Drug Suppression Unit. He began his service with DEA in the New York Field Division in 1980. During his career, he also served in Monterrey, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and San Diego, California. Special Agent Fernandez was a 1979 graduate of the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York. Special Agent Fernandez was survived by his mother, Sonia Fuentes and his father, Francisco Fernandez, his stepfather, Alejandro Chevas and a brother, Alfredo Fernandez. Special Agent Fernandez was posthumously awarded the DEA Administrator’s Award of Honor on May 17, 1995.

The Survivors Benefit Fund is not part of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) or Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) but, instead, is a private 501(c)(3) organization that supports the families of DEA agents, employees, and task force officers who gave their lives in the line-of-duty. Neither the DOJ nor DEA approves, endorses, or authorizes the Survivors Benefit Fund, its materials, or its fundraising efforts.