Adam Gordon

Adam Gordon is a career prosecutor who became a nationally-recognized expert on prosecutorial strategies to combat the fentanyl epidemic. Gordon joined the office in 2019 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, serving as the district’s Criminal Division Opioid Coordinator and most recently as a cartel prosecutor in the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces Unit.

Gordon was instrumental in creating the Fentanyl Abatement and Suppression Team known as “FAST” in San Diego County which is now a national model. Formed in September 2022, FAST is a multi-agency task force led by Homeland Security Investigations that targets significant fentanyl distributors in San Diego County to reduce the overdose death rate. He also has personally achieved justice for the victims of fatal fentanyl poisonings by prosecuting the responsible drug dealers, including one who supplied a deadly dose to a 13-year-old boy in Coronado.

Gordon’s outreach and prevention strategies have included unique ways to grab the attention of young people and warn them about the dangers of fentanyl, such as the production of a public service announcement that was a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Department of Justice and the Name Image Likeness Collective of the San Diego State Men’s Basketball Team in honor of National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day.

Additionally, Gordon extended his influence to law enforcement audiences around the nation by coauthoring an article for the Department of Justice’s Journal of Federal Law and Practice, Confronting the Chaos: Outreach and Prevention Strategies for the Fentanyl Epidemic from the Southern District of California.

Prior to serving as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Gordon was a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego County where he focused mostly on violent crimes. From 2014 to 2018, Mr. Gordon was in private practice in San Diego. Gordon received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University in 2004, and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2008. Mr. Gordon is also a Master at the Wallace Inn of Court.

A complete list of all former leaders of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California can be found HERE.