Scam

 

How a ‘diabolical’ former DEA staffer conned the intelligence community

In the fall of 2015, the head of Air Force intelligence got an odd pitch from a supposed deep cover operative.  The man said he was going undercover at various companies to ferret out would-be leakers and spies. He wanted the Air Force involved. Then-Lt. Gen. Robert Otto said the man, who had gotten in touch through another high-ranking Air Force official, spouted “all kinds of names and facts” and claimed other powerful people were on board. Otto was skeptical. “It just sounded — the technical term is ‘fishy,’ ” he said.
The military leader started asking around. By the time he met with the man a few months later, Otto was wearing a wire for the FBI. He had concluded that the program was a fraud.That meeting helped unravel a years-long scheme by Garrison Courtney, a onetime spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration who managed to burrow into the intelligence community, roping in more than a dozen public officials and as many defense contractors along the way.