Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA): Biggest Scandals & Corruption

Summary	Date	Source
Student Daniel Chong, forgotten in DEA cell for days without food or water, gets $4.1 million settlement	07/31/2013	NPR
Reuters: Secret DEA unit funnels NSA intercepts to agents, who are told to 'recreate' the trail to hide the source	08/05/2013	Reuters
DOJ watchdog: DEA agents held cartel-funded sex parties with prostitutes in Colombia; misconduct cases not properly investigated	03/26/2015	NBC News
DEA secretly logged billions of Americans' international calls for two decades, years before NSA program	04/08/2015	Christian Science Monitor
DEA chief Michele Leonhart to retire amid sex-party scandal after bipartisan 'no confidence' from House Oversight	04/21/2015	NPR
Ex-DEA agent Carl Force of Silk Road task force sentenced to 78 months for extortion, laundering, stealing $700K in bitcoin	10/19/2015	U.S. Department of Justice
DOJ watchdog: DEA paid informants $237M with scant oversight, including Amtrak and TSA employees	09/29/2016	DOJ Office of the Inspector General
Inspector general: DEA misled Congress and DOJ about deadly 2012 Ahuas, Honduras shootings that killed four villagers	05/24/2017	The Washington Times
ProPublica: DEA intelligence leaked through vetted Mexican police unit triggered Zetas massacre in Allende	06/12/2017	ProPublica
WaPo/60 Minutes: Congress and drug-industry lobbyists neutered DEA's power to stop opioid distributors as 200K died	10/15/2017	The Washington Post
Politico: Obama administration derailed DEA's Project Cassandra targeting Hezbollah's $1B cocaine empire to protect Iran deal	12/17/2017	Politico
DEA agent Fernando Gomez accused of joining agency to shield murderous Puerto Rico drug gang La ONU	12/20/2018	NBC News
DOJ watchdog: DEA was 'slow to respond' to opioid crisis, kept raising production quotas as deaths climbed	10/01/2019	Associated Press
Ex-DEA agent Chad Scott gets 160 months for perjury, stealing cash from arrestees, taking truck from drug dealer	08/12/2021	U.S. Department of Justice
Ex-DEA supervisor Nathan Koen gets 135 months for taking cash bribes from meth kingpin in Vegas casino bathroom	05/11/2022	Arkansas Times
DEA agent details how agency launders money for drug cartels, become rich & partying w/ prostitutes	11/14/2022	Associated Press
After $1.4M, two-year DEA foreign-operations review barely mentions corruption scandals; Grassley calls it 'stunningly vague'	03/24/2023	Associated Press
DOJ watchdog probes DEA chief Anne Milgram over millions in no-bid contracts awarded to past associates	04/20/2023	Associated Press
Watchdog: DEA hired 66 special agents who failed or cheated on polygraphs, violating its own policy	08/23/2023	Government Executive
Jury convicts veteran DEA supervisors Costanzo and Recio of selling confidential case info to Miami defense lawyers	11/08/2023	Associated Press
Ex-DEA deputy chief of financial operations charged with laundering millions for Jalisco New Generation Cartel	12/05/2025	The New York Times