An investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administration’s use of bribes to gain Amtrak passenger information the agency could have gotten for free is complete, but questions remain about what – if any – punishment will be doled out to those involved.

If other incidents are any indication, agents involved may suffer no more than a slap on the wrist for the long-running payments, which apparently were made so the DEA could avoid sharing confiscated cash and goods with other law enforcement agencies.

The long-simmering story made its first splash in the press in 2014 and features a thus-far unidentified former train and engine crew secretary who provided information to the DEA in exchange for known payments totaling $854,460 over two decades.

According to a 2014 report from Amtrak's inspector general to Congress, the secretary was allowed to retire after accepting DEA payments between 1995 and 2014. It’s unclear if the secretary was forced to forfeit the bribes, but it appears the informant has not been charged with a crime.

The inspector general's office at the Justice Department, the DEA’s parent agency, launched its own probe in 2014, and announced Thursday its investigation is complete in a three-paragraph investigative summary.

The public summary uses a male pronoun to refer to the former Amtrak employee, but provides no information about DEA personnel involved. It also notes a second Amtrak employee was bribed $9,701 by the DEA for information, but does not address that person's current employment status.

The Justice Department Office of the Inspector General would not say if the full investigation report, which was not made public, was sent to federal prosecutors as sometimes is the case, and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia referred questions to the Justice Department.

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush declined to comment on whether the report is being reviewed for use in possible prosecutions.

Though internal DEA discipline remains possible, the agency in the past has been criticized for light penalties, notoriously giving a ring of agents who attended “sex parties” with drug cartel-funded prostitutes suspensions of two to 10 days, as exposed last year by the Justice Department inspector general.

DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said Friday she had no information on whether any DEA employees were disciplined or face possible discipline.

But the DEA did say in a prepared statement it “welcomes recommendations that make us better” and “agrees with the findings in the OIG investigation.”

The statement continued, “We are currently working with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to revise our policies and procedures and make them consistent with the Attorney General guidelines.”

According to the investigative summary, the inspector general report found DEA agents made the payments “in violation of federal regulations relating to the use of government property, thereby wasting substantial government funds” and “exceeded the terms of the Amtrak employee’s [confidential source] classification when they directed him to gather specific information.”

The summary says paperwork given to DEA “approving personnel” did not note “that DEA would be paying the Amtrak employees for information it could have obtained from Amtrak at no cost” through a law enforcement task force.

The Amtrak inspector general told Congress in 2014 that the DEA’s payments to the better-paid spy denied the Amtrak police force an equal amount in forfeitures.



A summary of a separate investigation released by the inspector general Thursday may offer insight into why the bribery payments were identical to Amtrak police losses. In that case, an airport security screener for the Transportation Security Administration was offered a share of confiscated money if the screener alerted the DEA to passengers carrying large amounts of cash.

The DEA’s seizures aboard trains sometimes are highly controversial and made without criminal charges being filed. Last year, agents in New Mexico took $16,000 from a 22-year-old man moving to Los Angeles – what he said was his life savings – without a charge being filed, though officials have said there was good reason to take the money.

It’s unclear if the Amtrak inspector general investigation into the case remains active. That office previously denied a U.S. News Freedom of Information Act request seeking the name of the former Amtrak secretary, citing the ongoing nature of the probe. A separate FOIA request has been filed with the Justice Department inspector general seeking that information and the office’s full report.