(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The DOJ Inspector General released a report Tuesday about a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official who was caught spying on the DEA’s own agents with a remote camera that installed in the official’s office.
According to the DOJ-OIG report, someone from the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility alleged that a DEA special agent in-charge had installed and remotely monitored a “personally-owned camera, with real-time video and audio, in the SAC’s DEA office and used the camera to monitor activities of individuals without their knowledge.”
A senior DEA official was caught using a remote camera in his office to spy on his own agents, according to a DOJ-OIG report released today.
The DEA official was removed from his position for "misconduct unrelated to the OIG investigation." pic.twitter.com/IEcQp2hahL— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 6, 2025
“The OIG investigation substantiated the allegation that the DEA SAC installed and remotely monitored an unauthorized personally-owned camera, with real-time video and audio, in the SAC’s office, in violation of DEA policy,” the report said.
The DOJ declined to prosecute the official, who was removed prior to the Inspector General’s investigation “for misconduct unrelated to the OIG investigation,” the report said.
“The OIG has completed its investigation and provided its report to the DEA for its information,” the report concluded.
The DOJ-OIG report comes after it announced last November that it’s investigating the DEA’s interdiction activities at airports.
The DOJ-OIG has issued multiple reports over the decades about DEA agents racially profiling minorities when asking to conduct “consensual” searches at airlines.
In its most recent investigation, the DOJ-OIG said it learned of a DEA office that has a confidential informant who is an employee of a commercial airline. That informant—referred to in the report as a confidential source—has for years been receiving a percentage of cash seized from passengers based on the informant’s tips.
The DEA has informants working for commercial airlines, who receive a percentage of the cash seized based on their tips, according to this DOJ-OIG report issued yesterday
(STORY BELOW) pic.twitter.com/xIR7ZcEe5T
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 22, 2024
After the DOJ-OIG told the DEA about its findings, on Nov. 12 the agency suspended its practice of approaching passengers for consensual searches—unless the activity is either connected to an existing investigation or “approved by the DEA Administrator based on exigent circumstances.” The DOJ-OIG also recommended a number of reforms to the DEA’s consensual-search program, to which the agency agreed.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
