Chad Michael, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent killed Monday in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, was remembered by his colleagues in the DEA's South Florida office as a passionate and successful agent.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Mark Trouville, head of the Weston-based DEA field office, described Michael as ``an outstanding young man.''

Michael, 30, worked in South Florida's DEA office for six years before being reassigned in August to a DEA counter-narcotics operation in Afghanistan, Trouville said.

Michael was one of three agents killed Monday when a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

They were the first fatalities suffered by the agency in that country.

Michael had no family in South Florida. His mother and brother live in Pennsylvania, his home state.

The other agents killed were Special Agent Forrest Leamon and Special Agent Michael Weston. The men were assigned to the agency's fight against Afghanistan's opium trade, which often funds insurgent activity.

The DEA began operations there in 2005, but in the past year launched plans to greatly expand the effort, from about a dozen agents to almost 80.

The helicopter crash also claimed the lives of seven U.S. service members.

The cause is under investigation.

Leamon, 37, of Woodbridge, Va., had been working in Afghanistan since 2007.

Weston, 37, of Washington, had worked until August at the Richmond, Va., office.

This report was supplemented with information from the Associated Press.

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