DEA evaluate ‘stunningly imprecise’ after 2-year, $1.4 million evaluate

A lot of the 50-page report outlines the DEA’s sprawling, 69-country “overseas footprint,” whereas lauding its efforts to plug gaping holes within the oversight of undercover cash laundering operations and particular vetted models abroad.

“This report is stunningly imprecise in its precise analysis of identified issues on the DEA and treatments to repair them,” stated Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This speaks to the company’s broader effort to evade oversight. The company has tried to dodge my oversight inquiries however I intend to push ahead.”

The exterior probe was introduced in 2021 following reporting by The Related Press on the crimes of José Irizarry, a disgraced former DEA agent now serving a 12-year federal jail sentence after confessing to laundering cash for Colombian drug cartels and skimming tens of millions from seizures and informants to fund a world joyride of high-quality eating, events and prostitutes.

Irizarry informed the AP final 12 months that DEA brokers have come to just accept that there’s nothing they will do to make a dent within the move of unlawful cocaine and opioids into the US that has pushed greater than 100,000 overdose deaths a 12 months.

“The drug battle is a sport,” Irizarry stated. “It was a really enjoyable sport that we have been taking part in.”

Irizarry’s case acquired one paragraph within the exterior evaluate. An ongoing federal grand jury inquiry into a few of his jet-setting former DEA colleagues was talked about in a footnote. Additionally, Irizarry’s lawyer informed AP he provided to make his shopper accessible for an interview for the evaluate however was by no means contacted.

“Interviews and paperwork demonstrated that the DEA has already largely carried out the suggestions from the DOJ OIG to reinforce the oversight of compliance dangers arising out of the company’s overseas operations,” the evaluate concluded, referring to the U.S. Justice Division’s Workplace of Inspector Common.

The probe discovered fault with the forms it stated bogs down the project of brokers to overseas divisions and really useful placing incentives in place to draw “high expertise to hard-to-fill workplaces.” It additionally blamed the “corrupting affect” of cartels for cases of “particular person misconduct by DEA personnel.”

“DEA additionally might do extra to make sure supervisors are successfully evaluated and finally held accountable for compliance-related points,” the evaluate discovered.

Different suggestions included extra common audits of overseas workplaces and vetted police models, and stricter controls on bills.

The exterior evaluate was carried out by former DEA administrator Jack Garden and Boyd Johnson, a former federal prosecutor who dealt with worldwide drug instances. Public information present the no-bid contract was awarded to the legislation agency WilmerHale, the place Johnson works, at a price of $1.4 million. Johnson didn’t reply to emails searching for remark.

The report made little point out of the turmoil that has roiled DEA operations in Mexico, the place legislation enforcement cooperation collapsed amid the tenure of a regional director who was quietly ousted from his submit for having improper contact with attorneys for narcotraffickers.

AP reported earlier this 12 months that Nicholas Palmeri served simply 14 months within the submit and retired earlier than an Workplace of Inspector Common report discovered he sought authorities reimbursement to pay for his personal birthday celebration.

“For a report that value the federal government over $1.4 million, it doesn’t appear to suggest the varieties of adjustments that may truly stop one other Irizarry or different misconduct,” stated Bonnie Klapper, a former federal prosecutor in New York. “Whereas the report could be very thorough in laying out DEA’s position and duties, it mentions solely a only a few examples of misconduct, and its suggestions don’t go far sufficient.”

Palmeri arrived to Mexico within the wake of one of many greatest setbacks lately within the U.S.-led drug battle: the botched arrest of former Mexican Protection Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos. The retired common was nabbed on a sealed U.S. drug warrant upon arrival on the Los Angeles airport in 2020 solely to be launched a couple of weeks later underneath strain from Mexico’s leftist president, who retaliated by disbanding an elite police unit that was a key DEA ally.

Neither the Cienfuegos incident nor the arrest of one other distinguished U.S. ally in Mexico — ex-security chief Genaro Garcia Luna — are talked about within the report.

“The report’s key takeaway about bettering info sharing and breaking down inner silos couldn’t be extra commendable,” stated John Feeley, a retired U.S. diplomat who labored alongside the DEA in quite a few postings abroad. “However the greatest silo that must be dismantled from an operations perspective is the DEA’s failure to speak to entrance workplaces and ambassadors when it’s investigating senior officers of host nations.”

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, who has declined repeated interview requests, stated in a press release that the company would implement all 17 of the report’s suggestions.

“DEA is dedicated to assembly the challenges offered by at this time’s international drug threats and guaranteeing that our work is carried out on the highest stage attainable,” she stated.

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Goodman reported from Miami. Contact AP’s international investigative workforce at Investigative@ap.org.