A Little Rock-based supervisory DEA agent was arrested Monday night by FBI agents as soon as he stepped off an airplane from Las Vegas, where the FBI said they watched him take a $9,000 cash bribe from an undercover drug dealer.
Nathan Koen, 42, of Conway appeared Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere, who earlier in the day, based on an FBI agent’s affidavit, granted the FBI a warrant to search Koen’s office for evidence corroborating an investigation that began late last month, when FBI agents interviewed the drug dealer in California. Koen was detained.
A criminal complaint — a formal charge that allows a defendant to be arrested before a federal grand jury can review the case — accuses Koen of bribery of public officials and witnesses, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.
Koen has worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Little Rock field office as a group supervisor since September 2016.
According to the complaint, he accepted multiple cash payments from a known drug dealer from 2016 to 2018, in exchange for providing information that furthered the dealer’s criminal activities.
The bribery charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and the drug distribution charge is punishable by up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Benecia Moore and Chris Givens are prosecuting the case. Deere appointed Little Rock attorney Leslie Borgognoni to represent Koen.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.