Former DEA Special Agent Sentenced to 13 Years for Multiple Crimes

A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday for crimes related to official misconduct, including perjury, obstruction of justice, and theft.

Chad Allan Scott, 53, was found guilty of committing perjury—and directing others to commit perjury—to obtain a conviction against an alleged drug dealer. Scott also falsified forms so that he could take possession of a truck bought for him by a drug dealer. When he and two other law enforcement officers began to worry about a potential investigation, they threw evidence of their crimes into the swamps outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. Scott and members of his DEA group also stole money and possessions from defendants they had arrested. The case had been separated into two trials and Scott was found guilty in both of those cases.

Special Agent in Charge Douglas B. Bruce of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG) Denver Field Office said Scott’s crimes were “antithetical to the oath he swore to uphold.”

“While he was a law enforcement agent, Scott compromised cases and conspired to steal from the people he arrested.”—Bruce in a press release  

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said that Scott had taken an “oath to serve his community with integrity, but rather than use his badge to protect his community, he used it to break the law.”

Scott had been found guilty in the cases in August 2019 and June 2021. The case was initially investigated by the Louisiana State Police, and later by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DEA, Office of Professional Responsibility, and DOJ-OIG.