SAN ANTONIO – There's a new man in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office.
Special Agent Chris Combs took the reins in late April. On Monday Combs opened up the local field office for a media open house.
As the new special agent in charge, Combs is responsible for a large area of South Texas, splitting his time among offices in San Antonio, Austin and Waco as well as four border offices, which tend to be a little more active.
"One of the things that we're concerned about at the border are traditional FBI crimes -- but we see them a little more down there -- which is public corruption, money laundering and obviously drug trafficking from major crime syndicates that we're worried about," Combs said.
The continuing influx of immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border has led to a fraud investigation into criminals targeting the U.S. families of unaccompanied minors arriving in the U.S.
Criminals have been calling those relatives and asking for hundreds to thousands of dollars so that they can be reunited with the children.
"It was a fraud, the United States government does not ask for money to bring these children back to their family members," Combs said. "It's hard to believe that somebody would take advantage of children and their families that have been separated to make a couple hundred bucks, so we take that very seriously and we have a nationwide investigation going now."
Since revealing the fraud scheme, Combs said, potential victims who have been contacted didn't take the bait because they heard about it on the news.
Prior to leading the San Antonio office, Combs served as the lead agent on the bureau's efforts to combat and respond to active-shooter events across the country. He was also involved in a number of high-profile terrorism investigations, including the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, the anthrax mail attacks and a restaurant bombing in Pakistan.
Because there are concerns about terrorists and other criminals using the crisis on the border to gain access to the U.S., Combs said he maintains a close partnership with the U.S. Border Patrol.
"We work very closely with them, as they're in charge of protecting the border," Combs said. "As they gather people who have come across illegally, there's a good information flow there. If there are people they are concerned about, they contact the FBI and we work with them."