The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - Betrayal on the Bayou | 7. Inside the War Room

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

FBI Agent Chip Hardgrave and Chad Scott have a lot in common – they even went to the same high school in Baton Rouge – but now it’s Chip’s job to investigate the DEA’s star agent. This time, Chad’s misconduct isn’t going to get swept under the rug. His powerful allies can’t protect him. The FBI will take down Chad and anybody they catch along with him. Subscribe to The Binge to get all episodes of Smoke Screen ad-free right now. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Smoke Screen: Betrayal On The Bayou show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. A Neon Hum & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. For months now, while we've been reporting out this show,

combing through the Fed's massive file on Chad Scott, we've also been working on something. Getting one person to sit down and talk with us. A guy who spent months retracing Chad's every step. More than any other case I've ever worked, this case has those, oh shit moments. Those, wait a minute, what? Moments. This is the lead FBI investigator on Chad Scott's case. My name is Chip Hargrave. I'm a retired special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and I worked for the FBI for 31 years. Chip recently retired from the FBI and moved with

his wife to beautiful Pensacola, Florida. While we were trying to get him on the record, Chip was in a bad car accident. An 18-wheeler ran over his Jeep on the interstate. He broke his back. Chip was lucky to get out alive. A couple months after his accident, Feynman and I went to Chip's home and sat down with him in his man cave on leather armchairs. Chip is still wearing a back brace, but other than that, he seems to be doing well. As Chip would say, he's hard to kill. As you might have guessed, FBI agents rarely talk about their work.

I'm still bound by agreements with the FBI, and so part of that, I need to read you what they don't want me to discuss. We ask that you please remember the following information when you speak on your FBI activities. But Chip wanted to talk with us about this case, the biggest in his career. For years during the Chad Scott investigation,

we worked in parallel. Feynman and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Chip was doing and where he was heading next. And from behind the Bureau doors, they were keeping tabs on our reporting too. As you might imagine, the Bureau is and always has been very conscious of its portrayal in the media. I was being told that the case of being briefed to the director on a weekly basis.

Now, you might think that that would create, you know, pressure for me, but it didn't. As you'll see, Chip has more than a little in common with Chad Scott. In a wild coincidence, they did go to the same high school in Baton Rouge. They were only two years apart. And they're both the tough-talking federal agent type, Louisiana lawmen. I was what's called KMA at the time. KMA as a beer is saying means kiss my ass. And it's when you have at least 20 years on and you're over age 50 as an agent, you're a senior

13, you're KMA. So I'm one bad day away from going, all right, you know, fine here, here's my creds, here's my gun, send me my retirement, bye. Earlier in this show, I talked about one of the bizarre things about getting to know Chad. Generally, once you get to know somebody, you have a pretty fixed opinion of them. But that's never been the case with Chad. The things Chip would tell us in this five-hour interview changed our perspective on Chad yet again. In this episode, the penultimate of our series, we're finally getting the inside scoop directly from the man who went after Chad. This pulled back the curtain on a chapter of the case

that has never been made public. Chip will tell us how Chad was ruined by the things that made him successful in the first place. Coloring outside the lines, his terrifying reputation, his friends in high places. So far, being the legendary White Devil has served Chad well. Drug dealers were terrified of him.

And Chad's powerful allies have helped him avoid consequences. But the moment that Chip gets involved, the tide turns. I'm Jim Mustian. And I'm Feynman Roberts. From Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Episode 7, Inside the War Room. The Fed's file on Chad Scott, the one we've been using throughout our podcast. It's like a jigsaw puzzle with 10,000 pieces and no box. Until we talked to Chip, we've been missing the big picture. You know, the one on the front of the box. One of the things that we've known but not understood is that the feds went hard after some of Chad's powerful friends.

One of them is Carl and Johnny's boss, Tangipo Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards, the governor's brother. It all became very public. Dozens of FBI agents surrounded the sheriff's office and the Hammond Police Department Thursday afternoon. We'll get to that later. Because what we haven't known until now is why the Fed's sprawling investigation ended in charges for Chad, when Johnny and Carl would get plea deals. And why at one point, Chad's powerful allies were suspected of plotting with Chad himself. This is that part of the story.

It's early 2016. Chip Hargrave had just moved over from working street gangs to public corruption. My supervisor called me in and he said, do you know who Johnny Domain is? Johnny has just been caught selling drugs through Rose Graham. Chip hadn't met Johnny yet, but he was familiar with Chad because sometimes Chip's work in the FBI would cross over into DEA territory. I knew him through reputation as an extremely hard worker and someone that really took care of business. And I knew that he had Tangible Parish just basically on lockdown. And when I was a supervisor, anything that would come across my desk was Tangible Parish.

I would walk out, hey, make sure Chad gets this, because I knew it would be taken care of. Chad hasn't been suspended just yet, but he's been reassigned all the way up to New Jersey. I mean, other than being frigid cold in January, it is what it is, right? When the FBI starts monitoring the case, Chip and others in his department meet with the local investigators. And very quickly, there are warning signs that indicate that Chad's allies might be trying to interfere with the investigation. Now, when the case started, there was, I mean, I like to call it this unseen hand, right?

There was a lot of obvious unseen forces working against this case. For example, when Johnny is being interviewed by the state police, Maurice Landrieu, a federal prosecutor and friend of Chad's, shows up at the interview. It's also worth noting for the listeners that Maurice's family is very powerful. You know, some people call them the Kennedys of Louisiana because, you know, you've got a former U.S. senator, you've got two mayors, and everybody involved are lawyers and judges and all this, and there's like nine kids, and there's, you know, a powerful person to have involved. Maurice Landrieu is a vocal supporter of Chad's,

and his presence raised Chip's suspicions. We all looked at one another and said, why? One, why is he here? Two, why the hell does he have a federal proffer letter? This is a state. What is this? We reached out to Maurice Landrieu for comment, and we never heard back. Next, a lawyer named Gary Jordan goes into the investigation room to talk to Johnny.

The team have been told that he's Johnny's lawyer. Two or three minutes later, Gary Jordan comes out of that room, and he is moving like somebody's lit him on fire. And he goes straight out the doors, and Johnny comes out and says, that guy's not my attorney. I ain't talking to him, and I ain't talking to y'all. And he is visibly shaken. He looks afraid.

And we all looked and wondered, like, what the hell just happened? Johnny very clearly knew that when Gary Jordan walked in that he was sent by Chad. And he took that as a threat. This lawyer, Gary Jordan, he's a friend of Chad's. Chad had actually hired him to represent Johnny. And according to Johnny, Gary Jordan had been visiting him in jail.

Even after Johnny explained that he had his own lawyer, Gary kept trying to coach him on what to say to the feds. We reached out to Gary Jordan for comment, and he didn't respond. Chad is a nexus of power in Louisiana. Apart from the Louisiana Kennedy, Maurice Landrieu, he's also a friend of Sheriff Daniel Edwards, whose brother is the governor. And Chip told us this story about how the investigation landed in his lap.

What I was told happened is that the superintendent of the state police at the time, Mike Edmondson, got summoned to meet with the governor. And when he walked into the governor's office, the governor was sitting there with his brother, Daniel. And he was asked, what in the hell is going on with this investigation into the Tanjaboa Sheriff's Department? This is problematic because the head of the state police reports to the governor. And the governor is asking questions about an investigation into his brother. When Chip told us this story, I knew we need to look into it. We reached out to the three men involved, and each have a different account.

Both Edwards brothers say that the meeting Chip describes at the governor's mansion never happened. We reached out to Mike Edmondson, the former superintendent of the state police. He remembers going to the governor's mansion to brief him on the case, but can't recall if Sheriff Daniel Edwards was there too. We talked to Chip's former supervisor, Jeff Salette. At the time, he was head of the FBI New Orleans field office. We talked with Jeff about how Chad's connections made the case more significant than a simple corrupt cop story.

I would view it as you have a decorated DEA agent who's been putting people in jail for a decade and a half in Louisiana, now under criminal investigation for really basically using techniques that could undermine every single case that he touched, which were a lot of cases. So when you're talking about significance, here's what I want to put kind of in the heads of your listeners. You're in Louisiana, which is a very, very insular state. Everybody knows everybody. You have somebody who's the sheriff for 30 years. Their father might have been the sheriff. Their brother might have been the sheriff. And their family has been in power for, I don't know, 120 years. He's referring to the Edwards family. Okay.

Now you have a federal agent who also happens to be from the area, right? And now you have a very incestuous, it's the same kind of model that happened in Boston that led to a John Conley and a Whitey Bulger. So to me, as somebody who had seen that from the inside, right, had worked in Boston as a special agent, had worked organized crime, to me, this represented a very significant case for the state of Louisiana and the rule of law. By the way, Jeff Salette went on to become third in command at the FBI. When the FBI takes over the case from the state police,

they get boxes and boxes of files. They dedicate a room in the New Orleans field office to the investigation. At the time in the New Orleans division, I was told by my bosses it was the most important public corruption investigation that was ongoing. There's a name for this kind of base where big cases are waged. It's a name for this kind of base where big cases are waged. It's a war room.

So the feds take over Chad's case. They'll need to figure out whether or not Chad's allies have been trying to sway the investigation. They create a war room to keep it all hush-hush. The reason we had this war room is because Chad had a lot of friends in our office, you know, I've alluded to that. Is there like an electronic keycard access? Yes. And that's limited to... Basically the bosses and

whoever I said could go in there. Once you're in the room, the walls are lined with whiteboards. There was a picture of Chad waterskiing up there. Because as you guys know, he's a professional waterskiing, like fifth in the world in single ski slalom at one point, I believe. The feds had a 10-foot long rack with boxes of working materials and files, a computer set up, a long conference table. They traveled all over the South for interviews. We've been hearing some of them throughout this podcast.

They talked to Boobie about how Chad strong-armed him. He told her, tell Boobie he need to get in touch with me or I'm going to lock his ass up. So I'm like, damn. The feds talked to one of the agents who blew the whistle on Chad back in the early 2000s. You know, we felt that we were being discredited, not whined like a little bitch, but I mean, it was obvious that this group was completely out of control. They also tracked down the lawyer Chad sent to Johnny. We're telling you flat out to your face, if we wanted to leave in handcuffs with you today,

we could do that. We're not looking to do that. And we're not threatening you in any way. We're just telling you man to man, like, you know, we could charge you. They grill Maurice Landrieu, the Louisiana Kennedy prosecutor. So you don't recall vouching for Chad

or saying that Chad wasn't involved and had no misconduct involved in the investigation. At that meeting? Correct. No. Specifically, do you have a recollection of saying this style of subject? I don't think I said that. I mean, that may have come out of my mouth after the captain said that.

Chip told us about a lot of stuff we haven't heard much of, namely civil rights violations. These conversations we don't have on tape because some victims were too afraid to talk. People were scared to death of Chad. And there was a couple times that one person in particular, I said, well, why did you never call the FBI? And they were like, well, Chad is the feds. Like, they didn't even differentiate between FBI, DEA, anything. You know, Chad was just the feds. We also talked with another former FBI agent, Mike Zimmer, who was briefly on Chip's team.

He was in on some of those interviews with Chip. And what I saw were the allegations of abuse, you know, physical abuse. And that really troubled me. One of the many stories they hear is about how Chad brutally beat a suspect. And everybody talked about this beating. And apparently it happened in the Tangy Jail,

which is a whole other mess on its own, as you guys know. And apparently, Chad beat this one guy so severely and ripped dreadlocks out of his hair that the other prisoners could say, yeah, I could hear him screaming and screaming. And he cried for hours even after Chad left. And I could see that it literally ripped his scalp off, or, you know, large chunks, large braids of his hair, and threw it in the middle of the holding end, and everybody could see it. This story is gruesome, and it's terrifying enough that no one would want to mess with Chad.

But was it true? The feds had heard it from people who couldn't see what happened, but had heard it from nearby jail cells. Mike and Chip's next step is to see if they can substantiate it. They need to get in contact with the victim. We went to his mom's house, Mike and I, Mike Zimmer, and knocked on her door and said, Ma'am, you know, my name's Chip Hargrave.

I'm from the FBI. This is my partner, Mike Zimmer. We're investigating civil rights violations. We understand that your son was badly beaten by Chad Scott. And we are investigating Chad Scott for this and other matters. And the woman, I've been doing this three decades. And I've never seen this reaction from anybody. She was stone silent for about 30 seconds and was staring up at the sky with her mouth wide open. And all of a sudden she let out this huge long wail and said, oh my God, y'all

are going to get my baby killed and fell down on the couch. And she, um, she was bawling crying said he will kill my boy he will kill my boy he will kill my boy and i mean just she had this look of absolute fear for her son and it was disgusting to think that this woman is afraid for her son's life just because we're asking questions about a federal agent. And I nudge Mike and I say, man, this isn't the way you need to go. And I said, man, listen, we understand. We're not going to chase him down. If he wants to talk to us, here's Mike. Mike gave her his number. So just have him call us.

Not long after we were driving away, and her son called and basically just said he was afraid to talk to us. He was so scared of not just Chad Scott, but all of Chad's friends being being other criminals, and the police, that when he was done with his federal probation, he was leaving the state. But what was really interesting is, you know,

he was, but, you know, keep looking. You know, he wanted us to find something, but he was just afraid to come forward. They weren't ever able to confirm the beating, because apparently it happened in a section of the Tangibahoe Paris jail that the cameras don't cover. However, Chip and his team do find other victims. A man who says that Chad beat him against a concrete floor

while he was in custody. They see evidence of the injuries still written on his body, and he is willing to talk to the feds. This is the type of allegation that Jim and I have been hearing for years. It's part of the reason some people call Chad the white devil. We asked Chad for comment. He said it never happened.

The feds are building their case against Chad that eventually they will take to court. But while they're interviewing witnesses, the unseen hand is at work. Chad's allies are still trying to sway things in the Golden Boy's favor. Chip is in charge. Johnny's got Queen for a day, an opportunity to tell the feds everything and not have his words used against him later in court. So Johnny turns on Chad. And then this curious thing happens. Chip starts hearing that the state investigation that's supposed to be over and done with

is still going strong. Chip gets a call in the spring of 2016. It's Tangipoa Parish Sheriff, brother of the governor, Daniel Edwards. And he said, I'd like to set up a meeting to talk to you. It's Tangipoa Parish Sheriff, brother of the governor, Daniel Edwards. And he said, I'd like to set up a meeting to talk to you. Chip also has information coming in from sources working in the sheriff's office. And what Chip is hearing is that somebody in the office is pulling sealed documents about Johnny Domain's agreement with the feds. And I was like, that's interesting.

And he goes, so look, man, something's up. I don't know what it is, you know, but I see these guys all huddled up. And one of them actually said that the sheriff wants them looking at Johnny Domain. I was like, OK. Now, this person didn't know that I'd spoken with the sheriff just a few minutes ago. And he goes, so listen, man, something's up. I don't know what it is, but there is something going on. This is what's going on.

Chip and his team might have moved on from Johnny, who has become a star witness. But Chad's allies and local law enforcement haven't. They're still investigating Johnny's misconduct. Here's the sheriff. Johnny Domain would do things like, instead of paying his informant cash, he'd pay him in pills. Or he would set up to make a buy. Instead of the buy going down, Johnny Domain would just take the drugs from them and tell them to get the hell away and keep their mouth shut. Even though they know Johnny's already cooperating with the feds, they meet with a prosecutor to go over their evidence. The prosecutor has some feedback.

He thought maybe I needed to let the FBI know. I said, OK, which agent do you want me to call? And he tells me I should call Chip the FBI know. I said, okay, which agent do you want me to call? And he tells me I should call Chip Hargrave. Hammond PD and the sheriff's office have been doing this whole investigation without the FBI's knowledge. And at this point in the spring, it's public information that Johnny had already taken a plea and was cooperating with the feds. We were publishing stories about it in the paper. Might've been fine that they were looking into this stuff, but they're doing more than that. They're looking to get warrants drawn up for Johnny's arrest.

But in any event, so I meet with Chip Hargrave in my office. Here's Chip. And the sheriff proceeds to say that the Hammond Police Department has an active investigation in the Johnny domain. We have reason to believe that he has committed more crimes than what he admitted to in his proffer statement, and we wanted to make sure that you guys are aware of it. But the sheriff leaves out that they're getting warrants signed,

and he doesn't let the FBI know that the local police is planning to arrest their witness while he's out on bail. The feds learn that from an informant. Chip gets a phone call at 8 o'clock at night. Look, man, I just want you to know that the Hammond Narcotics Unit has drawn up arrest papers for Johnny Domain. And they're going to get him signed tomorrow morning. Listen, their plan is to arrest him and get him into Tanchpo Parish Jail where, and this is the guy quoting what he said, where they said, and I quote, some real bad things are going to happen to him. A great deal of harm is going to

come to him. And I'm like, oh shit, they're going to kill our only witness. One of the officers planning to arrest Johnny is fellow task force member Rodney Guimar. Johnny has told the feds detailed accounts of Rodney's misconduct. And now Rodney has the power to put Johnny in the local jail that's notorious for inmates beating and even killing each other. Chip's informant says that Johnny is going to be arrested. He goes, look, man, I'm pretty sure there's a patrol unit down the street from his place now. And, you know, this is a real oh shit moment, you know. And are you scared? I'm afraid they're going to kill the guy. He goes, I think they're going to kill him.

So that's all I have to base it on. It's not like I can call him up and say, hey, you guys are taking Johnny to the Tangier jail. You don't plan on killing him or anything, do you? You know, so I have to act as if this information is 100% true. They might not have been able to ask the sheriff if there was a plot to kill Johnny. But we can. And this is what sparked the late-night frantic search for Johnny, right? And led to him going into federal protective custody in Houston.

I mean, I can't answer that. I mean, what was the concern? I think the concern was they were worried that Johnny was going to get hurt or that if he went into the Tangipa Hill Parish Jail, he might never come out. Okay. Well, I mean, to me, that's a silly concern. I mean, because if the man had committed the crimes, which they had the evidence for and they had the probable cause for,

I mean, he needs an answer for them. Chip calls his team who book it to pick up Johnny. And the feds slap a falsification of government records charge on Johnny so that they can hold him. Once his initial appearance was over, we immediately took him to the federal detention center in Houston. We wanted him out of the state of Louisiana. We felt like he was not safe anywhere in the state. So this is what happened that led the feds to believe that Sheriff Daniel Edwards

was in on something, that he'd been scheming in some way with Chad, that he might have something to hide. Dozens of FBI agents surrounded the sheriff's office and the Hammond Police Department Thursday afternoon. About six months after Johnny was placed in protective custody, the FBI executes warrants on the two local law enforcement agencies that had tried to arrest Johnny. One of the places they raid is Sheriff Daniel Edwards' office.

Jim and I were there reporting for the paper. The New Orleans Advocate reports that one item taken from the annex was a computer from Sheriff Daniel Edwards' office. Edwards is the brother of Governor John Bel Edwards. It was a circus. The single-story brick building was completely shut down. A tall FBI agent in tactical gear was turning cars away,

folks coming in trying to pay their property taxes. The local news channels had film crews at the scene interviewing looky-loos. I received a text from my sister that the FBI was raiding the Hammond PD, so I've just been kind of riding around, looking, seeing, taking pictures. It must be something bad.

An FBI press person was hurting the media and offering no comments right and left. Chip's boss, the head of the New Orleans FBI field office, Jeff Salette, made a statement at the scene. Any information that you would have that you believe would be relevant to the FBI or our law enforcement partners, please bring to our attention. Governor John Bel Edwards was asked about the raid during a press conference. I obviously don't have much information about what they were looking for, why they chose to operate in the manner that they did. I just don't have a clue, but I can tell you what I do have a clue about. That's my brother Daniel. I was the seventh of eight children. He was the eighth of eight without any fear of contradiction or ever being proven wrong. I will tell you now, he was the eighth of eight, without any fear of contradiction or ever being proven

wrong. I will tell you now, he did not engage in anything improper, much less illegal. And I have all the confidence in the world in that, and I think Tom will bear that out. As reporters back then, we didn't know whether this was a fishing expedition or whether they had reason to target Sheriff Daniel Edwards. In our interview, Chip explained. So this thing was twofold. One, it was an understanding that if they are engaged in this conspiracy to impede our investigation, there's going to be documentation of it. And also, it was a way to let everybody up there know that if you try this with us, we are going to bring the full force of the federal government against you. So it would be better if you just backed off and let us do our job. And, you know, it's kind of like, you don't

want to sit right on the rail at the NASCAR track, guys. You kind of want to sit this one out. The feds were sending a message, but they were also looking for evidence of obstruction of justice. Well, we were really hoping to find any kind of documentation, whether on paper or electronic, showing the directives, like, hey, this is what you need to do. Emails going back and forth saying, you know, I've spoken with the FBI guys. Just anything that would point to any sort of conspiracy. Basically, we were throwing kind of a dragnet to see what are you guys up to on behalf of Chad?

We asked Sheriff Daniel Edwards if he intentionally misled the FBI about a gather that, you know, the reason that Hammond PD was doing an investigation was on state level charges. And the reason, you know, that they wanted people to know that there was significant evidence is because warrants would be trying to be attained. I mean, I can't help the FBI if they didn't see that coming. You know, I really I'm not trying to demean anybody, but I didn't lie to them and I didn't mislead them. The feds tore apart the sheriff's office, had him open up his safe, took his computer, went through his email, text, and phone records. We asked Chip about it. Would you describe the raid as a success? No. And I'm the only one that personally went through all 176 boxes of that evidence that we seized. And no, there was no evidence of any crimes.

On this count, Sheriff Daniel Edwards agreed. There's not one piece of evidence, not one text message, not one phone call, not one document that was introduced into evidence, or even attempted to be introduced into evidence, that came from that raid on that day. When I tell you it was an absolute, I mean, it was a strikeout. It was a zero. They need the answer for that. They need the answer for that. They need to answer for that.

Jim asks if the sheriff thinks the feds owe him an apology. They owe the people of the Tenshaw Parish an apology. That's what they owe. Chip had a different take. Yeah, well, there were numerous, numerous citizens of his parish that were victimized by this guy, Chad Scott. So if there's any apologies going on, it needs to be the sheriff to the people that he represents. So, after the feds raided the sheriff's office and found nothing, the sense that there could be a greater conspiracy dried up.

Their suspicions on the Louisiana Kennedy, Maurice Landrieu, didn't go anywhere either. And I do want to say that Maurice was on the front end of the things. And I think he was, I genuinely believe that he believed that Chad was a good guy and that this was a huge mistake. And he wanted to stop something from happening to what he believed was a very good agent. Chad is the biggest fish the feds have on the line. Chip's team has heard about what Chad is capable of, but they don't have much proof they can bring to court. Lucky for them, it's around this time that Carl breaks and decides to start cooperating with the feds.

Over the course of the investigation, Chip has heard a lot of things about Chad. Well, there are a lot of allegations made against Chad that we believe are true, but just couldn't prove. We had information from multiple drug dealers that Chad was taking money. Chip says that they heard for a price, a drug dealer could pay Chad to protect loads of drugs while they were being transported from Houston to Atlanta. That Chad would skim money off bus and give his super informants drugs to deal on his behalf.

That he'd make drug dealers pay to be on his A-team. And said, here's how this is going to work. You're going to join what be on his A-team. And said, here's how this is going to work. You're going to join what they called the A-team. If you get on the A-team, you know, you're going to be okay. You're going to pay monthly for Chad's protection. If you don't do this, Chad's going to make sure that you go across the lake and he's going to get you 40 years. But did you also notice a gulf between what actually was occurring and what was being

attributed to Chad? Maybe that there was a sort of myth about Chad, even as he was breaking the law. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, there was. And that was a big part of the investigation, was trying to figure out what was myth and what was stories that Chad definitely used to advantage to keep the scare on people. And that's pretty smart. And what the truth of the matter really was. If anybody could, at least in theory, sort the fact from the fiction, it would be Carl, Chad's right-hand man for over a decade. Well, in a room full of feds in March of 2017, Carl comes in with the details.

Right off the bat, he admits to bringing a variety of drugs to Kentucky for recreational use. Yes. Helping Booby perjure himself. Right. Correct. He tells them about keeping wallets from people they'd arrested. The money we put in the pile, count it up, and then split it up amongst whose we's. Mainly it was Chad, Rodney, and myself. And then Johnny come on the scene and we split money up with Johnny also. But this other mythological tier? Carl doesn't have the answers they're looking for.

A prosecutor asked if Chad was taking bribes from informants. Do you know about them ever accepting money or drugs on Chad's behalf? No, but I don't know. I don't really understand. To get on the A-team, I guess. Like, for instance, you know. This is Chip in the investigation room. He asks about another allegation, Chad's informants selling drugs for him. Guy has five kilos. Let's say he gets charged with two and the other three kilos go to Chad's

informants for them to sell on his behalf. Do you have any knowledge? I've never had any knowledge like that. As far as I know, Chad's never stole any drugs or moved any drugs as far as I know. I've never seen it happen or even heard of it. I was waiting to ask this but like before the first proffer we ever had you you had mentioned to your attorney here that you could give us Chad as a multi-kilo dealer. Well it was it was that multi kilos were allowed to be moved, delivered. And that was that deal. The Frederick Brown?

Right, they went to Atlanta. That he knowingly let those kilos walk. What Carl is talking about here is that Ched chose to bust Boobie's $850,000 rather than seize the drugs. We talked with Chip about it. So my same DEA counterpart over there was telling me that there was increased pressure on them $850,000 rather than seize the drugs. We talked with Chip about it. So my same DEA counterpart over there was telling me that there was increased pressure on them at that time of the year because it's coming up to the close of the fiscal year

to have more financial seizures. They were under a lot of pressure for that. And I think, again, I'm putting myself in Chad's position, so it's speculation. I think he saw an opportunity to give the bosses exactly what they wanted and also put another feather in his cap. But this is an issue, because while it might be objectionable conduct, it's systemic, not illegal. This is Michael Gannon, the Boston accent from DEA Internal Affairs. But that's what I'm trying to figure out. So when you talk about criminal activity that you participated in with Chad Scott, what else is there than right now you've told us that you guys would take money

that people would get arrested and it would sit in like a file cabinet for a long period of time. What else was done with you and Chad? As far as illegal? Yes. Activity? That's what I'm saying is, to my knowledge, Chad, the only illegal activity that Chad, that I knew he committed,

was basically what I've told you for, is taking money and stuff. Carl has agreed to testify. But when it comes down to it, he says he doesn't know all that much. So where does that leave the feds? What charges will they actually be able to bring against Chad? We have a video from our files.

It's dated about six months after Carl's interview. It starts off high in the clouds above the serpentine streets of a North Shore subdivision. The clouds drift by. You can see dense green woods, a corner of a lake. It's oddly peaceful. The eye of the camera drifts and then finds focus, zooms in on one beige house with a green lawn and a carport. It's Chad Scott's family home. The FBI is watching his every move. Next time on our finale of Betrayal on the Bayou. The feds arrest Chad.

I mean, as soon as I breached the jetway, like 10 or 12, 13 guys come running down like ghostbusters. They aren't taking any chances that Chad would get out of their hands. There's an FBI plane in the air, and they'd even let the air out of his tires. Yes, I did. You did? I did. Now, I didn't slash the tires. I just let the air out of them. Chad is going to jail. Spent the whole night listening to you motherfucker, just sitting there thinking, how did I get here? What in the world did I do to get here? That's next time on our final episode

of Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou is an original production by Mian Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. It was written and produced by Odelia Rubin. It was reported by me, Feynman Roberts, and my co-host, Jim Mustian. Our editor is Catherine St. Louis. She is also Neon Hum Media's executive editor.

Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shee. We also use music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Our associate producer is Ann Lim. Fendall Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Samantha Allison. Alexis Martinez is our podcast coordinator.

Special thanks to Stephanie Serrano, Mia Warren, and Kate Mishkin. And to our consultants, Skip Sewell and Chip Hardgrave. We couldn't have made this show without the support of our legal team, including Lauren Pagoni, Rachel Goldberg, and Allison Sherry. I'm Feynman Roberts. And I'm Jim Mustian. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. Thanks for listening.