Marco Bello/Reuters
One of the most notoriously corrupt agents in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s history says he was one of many who skimmed millions and partied like the criminals they were trying to nab.
Jose Irizarry, whose 12-year federal prison sentence begins this week, told the Associated Press in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that he is going down swinging and has named a number of former colleagues who he says were at least as bad as he was. “We had free access to do whatever we wanted,” Irizarry, 48, was quoted saying. “We would generate money pick-ups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there it was about drinking and girls.”
He claims that federal agents, prosecutors, and informants all worked together to swindle the U.S. government and bilk money meant to trap Columbian cartels in what he said was an “unwinnable war.”