Secret DEA files show agents joked about rape in WhatsApp chat; one was later charged.

But so far, Irizarry is the only government official to face charges. Internal records obtained by the AP show that the DEA has disciplined or fired at least a dozen other agents for participating in the bacchanalia or for failing to raise the alarm about it.

Among the silent victims was a St. Louis division chief who retired amid allegations that he rented a New York apartment for his mistress with DEA ​​money. Another who left was a veteran supervisor of jet-setting agents who lied to the FBI about soliciting prostitutes, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The DEA records also include new details about one agent, Danielle Dreyer, who was fired last year for what the Justice Department called “unusual conduct” during a 2017 rooftop party in Cartagena, Colombia, attended by a half-dozen DEA agents and then-federal prosecutor Marisa Darden. An internal DEA investigation found that Dreyer had been taking ecstasy and that her antics in a hot tub included squirting breast milk on female colleagues, fondling Darden’s breasts and grinding on her supervisor’s lap.

After leaving the Justice Department, Darden was confirmed by the Senate in 2022 as the first Black female U.S. attorney for northern Ohio. However, she abruptly withdrew before taking the position, telling the AP through a lawyer that she did so for personal reasons.

Law enforcement documents obtained by the AP show Darden was interviewed by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General just days before she recused herself. Neither Darden nor her attorney responded to requests for comment.

The rape charge abroad proved to be the beginning of the end for Zoumberos, who resigned from the DEA more than a year after his rape arrest, invoking the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects him from wrongful death charges, by refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Tampa.

Irizarry had long considered Zoumberos a brother, but in interviews with investigators he accused his former partner of a number of crimes, including using money obtained from DEA informants to buy a private boat.

“Zoumberos could do whatever he wanted and not get caught because he was the head of AGEO,” Irizarry told the FBI, using an acronym for Attorney General Exempt Operations.

Zoumberos’ attorney, Raymond Mansolillo, has called Irizarry a serial liar and previously told the AP that federal authorities “want to find a crime that fits this case, not a crime that actually occurred.”

According to DEA records, on the night of the alleged sex attack in Spain in April 2018, Zoumberos and his partner had dinner with the informant at an Irish pub in Madrid. Zoumberos told officers that the woman later approached him at the bar.

The woman told the AP that over drinks, Zoumberos showed her photos on his smartphone showing him fishing and playing with his dogs.

“He seemed like a good man,” she recalled.

The conversation was pleasant, she said, and she lost track of time. With the subway closed, Zoumberos made what seemed like a gentlemanly offer.

“He told me, ‘Don’t worry, you can sleep in my hotel room. We’ll watch a movie and in the morning you can catch the metro,'” she told the AP. “Honestly, I was a student and I didn’t have 60 euros to pay for a taxi home.”

At about 1:30 a.m., the two walked a few blocks to Zoumberos’ government-paid hotel. The woman said she told Zoumberos she couldn’t have sex because she was on her period. Zoumberos told the DEA she consented to consensual sex and “was never nervous.”

Around 3 a.m., the woman said, police and an ambulance arrived and found her with bruises on her wrists and Zoumberos very drunk. She told the AP that she locked herself in a bathroom, then fled the hotel through a fire exit in a state of complete shock.

Hours later, the DEA chief in Spain placed an urgent call to the agency’s command center outside Washington. Records show that nearly three dozen DEA officials were eventually notified of Zoumberos’ arrest, including then-acting administrator Robert W. Patterson.

Within hours, the U.S. Embassy in Madrid sent a small delegation to visit Zoumberos in prison. It is unclear what happened next. The U.S. State Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment and has not released any documents related to its response. The DEA also declined Freedom of Information Act requests for Zoumberos’ arrest records, citing the privacy of the former agent.

The day after his arrest, Zoumberos was released without bail, ordered to stay away from his accuser, and quickly boarded an American Airlines flight to Tampa. There is no word on why a judge did not take his passport.