John Durham

John J. Durham is the Chief of the Long Island Division of the Eastern District of New York, as well as Chief of the Long Island Division’s Criminal Section.  As Chief of the Long Island Division, John oversees both the Criminal and Civil Division for the Long Island Office.

John joined the Office in October 2005 and has served in the General Crimes and Long Island Criminal Sections. He has been appointed to several leadership positions in the Office and the Department of Justice, including Deputy Chief for the Long Island Criminal Section, the Office’s Capital Case Coordinator, the Attorney General’s Review Committee on Capital Cases and Chair of the MS-13 Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force. In August 2019, John was appointed to serve as the Director of Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV), a Department of Justice initiative to combat La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), where he spearheaded indictments against MS-13’s highest-ranking international leaders. He became Chief in 2024.

During his time in the Office, John has investigated, prosecuted, and supervised a broad-range of federal offenses, including racketeering, murders, terrorism, civil rights, obstruction of justice, armed robberies, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, firearms and public corruption. Most significantly, he has directed the Office’s efforts to dismantle the operations of MS-13 in the EDNY, as well as nationally and internationally. In a series of EDNY indictments, he has led teams of AUSAs and investigators that have arrested and convicted hundreds of MS-13 leaders, members and associates, including charges related to more than 65 murders committed in this district between January 2008 and the present. As the Director of JTFV, John led a team of AUSAs and law enforcement officers from across the country, and secured significant indictments against MS-13’s command and control structure across the United States, Central America and Mexico, including the first use of national security charges against MS-13 leaders. In addition to his work combatting MS-13, John has prosecuted defendants who attempted to travel to Yemen for the purpose of joining al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and fighting jihad against United States allies, and members of numerous other violent criminal organizations, including the Bloods, 18th Street gang, Crips, Salvadorans With Pride and violent narcotics trafficking and robbery crews. Finally, in addition to his violent crime work, John has prosecuted several significant and sensitive public corruption and civil rights matters, including the former Chief of Department for the Suffolk County Police Department, the former Suffolk County District Attorney and former Chief of Investigations and Chief of the Government Corruption Bureau for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, a then-sitting Nassau County Legislator, a New York City Police Department sergeant and a Food and Drug Administration official.

John graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1998 and from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2001. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Stephen C. Robinson in the Southern District of New York.