A group supervisor at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Little Rock Field Office faces 15 years in prison for allegedly accepting bribes and participating in a conspiracy to distribute drugs. Nathan Koen, who was a supervisor in the Arkansas office since September 2016, appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere in federal court in Little Rock on Tuesday afternoon.
Koen, 42, allegedly provided information to and accepted numerous cash payments from a drug dealer between 2016 and 2018. He was transferred to Little Rock from the DEA field office in Jacksonville, Fla., where he worked for 14 years. He was arrested after a known drug dealer allegedly told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he had been paying Koen for protection and information, which led to the dealer fleeing police just before a large-scale drug enforcement operation, according to court records obtained by Arkansas Online.
Koen faces up to 15 years in prison on the bribery charges and a maximum sentence of life in prison for the drug distribution charge.
More: Senior ICE Lawyer Admits Stealing $190,000 Using Immigrants’ IDs
