Corrupt US drugs agents boasted of using prostitutes on ‘world debauchery tour’
Corrupt US drugs enforcement agents boasted about being on a “world debauchery tour” of “boozing and whoring”, leaked conversations show.
Officers traded lurid sexual images, discussed hiring prostitutes and joked about rape in WhatsApp messages obtained as part of an FBI criminal misconduct investigation.
The group chat from 2017 included five Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, one of whom remains with the agency today.
The agents in the group chat led a undercover money laundering operation codenamed Whitewash, criticised in a blistering internal audit after it was shut down in 2017.
The audit found the agents’ visiting of bars, strip clubs and hotels in Paris, Madrid and the Caribbean was “unacceptable” and rife with corruption.
They were ‘just going on vacation’
“The agents would set up one meeting in the city of their choice but in reality were just going on vacation,” an FBI investigative report said.
Other records detailed how agents frequented the red-light district of Amsterdam for prostitutes, and recorded “no enforcement operations” at all during a week-long trip to Norway, a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
The audit found the five-year operation resulted in only five convictions while agents shelled out $900,000 on travel and $26,000 on meals as they partied around the world tapping a $1.9 million government fund they referred to as their “debauchery piggy bank”.
Among the group chat members was Jose Irizarry, a former special agent who was jailed for money laundering and fraud in 2021.
“Jose you’re just smashing a--,” one agent wrote of Irizarry in February 2017, a month into a new US presidential administration. They added: “Nothing wrong with that under Trump...Your (sic) good.”
Before one trip, one group chat member told his colleagues he was “hoping you’ve organised some welcome p—y for me tomorrow when I land.”
“Tough life, this war on drugs,” another agent wrote.
Agent arrested for alleged sex assault in Spain
Irizarry told federal authorities in 2020 that he had direct knowledge of 15 DEA agents soliciting prostitutes.
One of the agents in the chat was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault in Spain in 2018, although the charges were dropped by a Spanish judge.
A Homeland Security Investigations report said Irizarry and the other agents had talked about forcing anal sex on prostitutes.
They used the term “pancaking“ to refer to anal sex, and often accompanied such mentions with an emoji of a stack of pancakes.
“I’m coming old school to pancake a few Colombia chicks,” an agent texted before one 2017 trip.
There were frequent mentions of prostitutes and at least two references to assaulting them and leaving it to an informant to “clean up” the mess.
“These are some expensive b-----,” one agent wrote in an exchange that included the sharing of a prostitute’s phone number. “She’s telling me $1,000 for the night.”
The DEA said: “The alleged misconduct in this case is egregious and unacceptable and does not reflect the high standards expected of all DEA personnel.”
Ben Greenberg, a former US attorney in Miami, said the messages were “beyond inappropriate.”
“In the context of such serious criminal allegations, the chats look like evidence of a crime and not just grotesque banter,” he said.
“US law enforcement has an obligation to fully investigate this case and to hold anyone involved in criminal activity accountable regardless of their position.”
In a statement, the DEA said: “The DEA has made significant advancements in oversight measures, disciplinary processes and accountability of personnel”, adding it would “remain vigilant in our pursuit for excellence and integrity and will take decisive action should serious misconduct occur”.