Biography
Retired U.S. Secret Service Senior Executive Peter Angelo “Pete” Cavicchia II was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in the city’s North Ward. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History and Labor Relations from Upsala College in 1966, where he played football and was a member of the Rho Alpha Phi fraternity. He held a job as a grammar school teacher upon graduating but was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War in October 1966. He was sent to Ft Hood, Texas to the 1st Armored Division, where he received Basic Training and was later assigned to the 501st Military Police Company. In 1967 he was deployed to Dầu Tieng, Vietnam where he served with the 25th Infantry Division, 25 Th MP Co. In 1968 he fought in the TET Offensive, was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and received the U.S. Army Commendation Medal.
Mr. Cavicchia’s thirty-year career at the United States Secret Service (USSS) began in 1970. During his first decade of service, he received the Secretary of the Treasury Honor Award for his undercover investigation into one of the most prolific counterfeiting rings operating in the U.S.
From 1986 to 1998, he served as Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Newark, New Jersey Field Office of the USSS, and the Philadelphia Field Office from 1998 to 2000. There, he planned, managed, and directed USSS criminal investigations in financial crimes, counterfeiting, computer forensics, credit card, and bank fraud, as well as Protective Intelligence investigations pertaining to persons and/or groups that would threaten the safety of the President of the United States and other protectees of the USSS.
Executive Protection of the President and Vice President
He was also responsible for planning and directing the executive protection of the President and Vice President and other USSS protectees during their visits to the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware geographic districts. Most notably, he was the architect of the security for major events such as Pope John Paul II’s visit to Northern New Jersey in 1995, and the 2000 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia, PA.
Mr. Cavicchia was behind many notable and fruitful USSS investigations. In 1984, while SAIC of the Counterfeit Division at the USSS Headquarters in Washington, D.C., he led a special Secret Service task force that oversaw the investigation of the most deceptive counterfeit U.S. currency in the history of the U.S. which was receiving worldwide distribution. Based in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore and other major Asian cities, the investigation led to the ringleader’s arrest. In 1995, under his direction, the New Jersey USSS office launched the eight-month undercover operation “Operation Cybersnare,” the Secret Service’s first “cyber-sting,” which caught six suspects accused of dealing in stolen cellular telephone and credit card data worth millions of dollars. In 1999, agents from his Philadelphia office arrested suspects in connection with a credit card fraud ring that had targeted a select group of very high-ranking officers in the U.S. military.
Special Agent
In 2012 Mr. Cavicchia also served as a Special Agent with the Office of Inspector General’s Special Anti-Fraud Task Force of the U.S. Department of the Environmental Protection Agency. Aside from his extensive domestic experience, he has supervised Special Criminal Task Forces in Bogotá, Rome, Milan, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
He earned his Masters of Arts in Education in Supervision and HR Management from Seton Hall University in 1993, where he served as adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Human Services & Education as a member of the University’s Police Graduate Studies program.
Strategic Services International LLC
Since retiring from the Secret Service in 2000, Mr. Cavicchia has been president and chairman of the security consulting firm Strategic Services International LLC, headquartered in Sparta and Randolf, New Jersey, where he provides expert advice in executive protection, overseas risk analysis, due diligence, computer systems intrusions, electronic countermeasures and strategic planning. He advised the U.S. Department of the Army in counterterrorism training and interdiction, executive protective and intelligence investigative procedures worldwide after the World Trade Center attack on 9/11. After 9/11, he was recruited to serve as an intelligence agent on the U.S. Army Anti-Terrorism Interdiction Task Force. He traveled internationally in his role in these U.S. Army programs, serving in Central Asia, Mid East and Africa.
In 2012, he became a Special Investigator in the Diplomatic Security Service Office of the U.S. Department of State, where he conducted background and due diligence investigations on U.S. Department of State personnel who held or sought sensitive positions within the State Department that required security clearances of all levels. He is currently a specialist at the Powhatan Group, a safety and security consulting company based in Delaware.
Mr. Cavicchia is the grandson of Peter Angelo Cavicchia, the first Italian-American Congressman. He is the grandnephew of Dominic Cavicchia, who served as Speaker of the New Jersey State Assembly in 1944 and was also the New Jersey Deputy Attorney General for Alcohol and Beverage Control. His son, Peter Cavicchia III, also a former U.S. Secret Service agent, responded as an EMT to the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He received the agency’s highest honor, The Medal of Valor, for his courageous actions at the WTC on that day.
He has supported a variety of organizations and causes, including Marist College, the Republican National Committee, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the Wounded Warrior Project and Vietnam Veterans of America. In 2007, he volunteered his time to share his experience of the Vietnam War with the Veterans History Project. He served as a senior security executive for the Republican National conventions in 2012 and 2016. A certified cold case investigator for the National Center of Exploited and Missing Children, he has recovered two children.
Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Vimeo. Learn more about him at The New Jersey Licensed Private Investigators Association, Inc. Read his Security Today: What You Need to Know blog, and his articles on Medium, including:
Keeping Your Home Safe While on Summer Vacation
Security Concerns for Businesses During COVID-19
Common Sense Cybersecurity Tips for Online Dating