He was hired to keep drugs out of Florida, now a DEA agent is accused of working with drug dealers to bring them in.
The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas said 42-year-old Nathan Koen faces up to 15 years for taking bribes from a known drug dealer.
Koen worked in northeast Florida for 12 years before transferring to a Little Rock office.
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas arrested Koen Monday on federal bribery and drug conspiracy charges.
According to the federal complaint, Koen accepted multiple cash payments from a known drug dealer between 2016 and 2018 and was part of a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Koen met known drug dealer Francisco Enrique Gonzalez-Benitez after his 2012 arrest for conspiring to distribute heroin in California, Arkansas and Florida.
The reported says Koen later tipped him off when postal inspectors in Jacksonville intercepted four boxes of drugs Benitez sent to his brother.
The newspaper reports FBI agents arrested Koen after he reportedly accepted a $9,000 cash bribe from Benitez.
If found guilty on bribery charges, Koen faces up to 15 years in prison.
The drug distribution charge could land him in prison for life.