A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent was convicted Tuesday of lying and falsifying records to hide a long-running scheme to skim money and other property during drug busts. In one scheme, he convinced a confidential informant buy a truck so the agent could seize it through asset forfeiture.
A New Orleans jury found former DEA special agent Chad Scott guilty of seven counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and falsifying government records. The U.S. government's indictment alleged that from at least 2009 to 2016, Scott and two other members of a New Orleans drug task force conspired to steal money from suspects and from the DEA's evidence locker, and to falsify records to cover their tracks.
Part of Scott's misconduct involved getting a Houston drug dealer to purchase a $43,000 Ford F-150 so that Scott could seize it through asset forfeiture laws and then use it as a work vehicle. Scott falsified seizure records to make it appear that he had taken the truck in Louisiana.
Federal prosecutors also accused Scott of convincing two drug traffickers to lie on the stand about about a third defendant's involvement in a drug case, in exchange for more lenient sentences. The third defendant's conviction was later overturned. ...https://reason.com/2019/08/29/a-dea-...et-forfeiture/