History Main / NaughtyNarcs

Then because drugs are such a profitable business, the people they end up infiltrating are usually buried to their ears in HookersAndBlow. So why not get a piece of the action yourself? After all, DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster.

->'''Willie:''' I'm DEA! You know what the fuck that means?!
->'''Pinball:''' Yeah, you the most crooked nigga on this plane.

** In one of his most deplorable acts, [[spoiler:Walter invokes this when he sends Hank a "confession tape" that is nothing but a hurricane of lies framing Hank as a LawmanGoneBad drug kingpin who used his connections in the DEA to start a criminal empire and threatened Walt into servitude.]]

* Downplayed in ''Series/BreakingBad''. While the DEA overall is given a very positive portrayal, Hank is a bit of a CowboyCop who isn't averse to underhanded or illegal methods to catch suspects. [[spoiler:Especially once he realizes that his brother-in-law Walt is the real Heisenberg. The level of this betrayal wounds Hank so deeply that he goes off the deep end in his attempt to bust Walt, to such a degree that Hank single-handedly ruins any chances of making Walt pay for his crimes if the case ever actually went to court.]]

The Drug Enforcement Administration is tasked, naturally, with fighting the drug war. But because the cartels are so powerful and international, the DEA's tactics often wind-up more like the CIA than the FBI. Long-term {{Deep Cover Agent}}s, {{Black Helicopter}}s, the whole nine. Because CIAEvilFBIGood, this already tends to push them towards the DirtyCop end of the spectrum.

Therefore, almost any time a DEA Agent appears in a work, the chance of a FaceHeelTurn is immense, assuming they were ever a Face to begin with.

* One arc of ''ComicBook/LargoWinch'' sees Largo pursued by a zealous DEA agent convinced that he's using his corporate empire to run a drug-smuggling operation. He is, of course, in on it ([[spoiler:the actual CorruptCorporateExecutive is the director of the airlines division, using jetliners to transport vast amounts of cocaine across the Atlantic. Largo blows up the plane with him, the DEA guy, the corrupt crew and the drugs on it as the least-messy resolution to the whole story]]).

* Downplayed in ''Series/BreakingBad''. While the DEA overall is given a very positive portrayal, Hank is a bit of a CowboyCop who isn't averse to underhanded or illegal methods to catch suspects. [[spoiler:Especially once he realizes that his brother in law Walt is the real Heisenberg. The level of this betrayal wounds Hank so deeply that he goes off the deep end in his attempt to bust Walt, to such a degree that Hank single-handedly ruins any chances of making Walt pay for his crimes if the case ever actually went to court.]]

* An episode of ''Series/CSIMiami'' has money (evidence of a crime) disappear from the lab, prompting a corruption investigation. [[spoiler: The culprit turns out to be an InternalAffairs agent who'd become convinced the lab was corrupt, and decided to fake a crime to prove it.]]

* The resident DEA operative Eddie Guerra from ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'' is a gambler and quite obviously shady. That said, the game eventually presents the resident FBI agent in equally negative light, contrary to the usual portrayal of that agency.

* Downplayed in ''Series/BreakingBad''. While the DEA overall is given a very positive portrayal, Hank is a bit of a CowboyCop who isn't averse to underhanded or illegal methods to catch suspects. [[spoiler:Especially once he realizes that Walt is the real Heisenberg. The level of this betrayal wounds Hank so deeply that he goes off the deep end in his attempt to bust Walt, to such a degree that Hank single-handedly ruins any chances of making Walt pay for his crimes if the case ever actually went to court.]]

The Drug Enforcement Agency is tasked, naturally, with fighting the drug war. But because the cartels are so powerful and international, the DEA's tactics often wind-up more like the CIA than the FBI. Long-term {{Deep Cover Agent}}s, {{Black Helicopter}}s, the whole nine. Because CIAEvilFBIGood, this already tends to push them towards the DirtyCop end of the spectrum.

* ''[[Film/TheProfessional Leon: The Professional]]'' has Creator/GaryOldman as AxCrazy DEA Agent Norman Stansfield. His whole DEA "crew" are all [[DirtyCop dirty cops]].
* ''Film/LicenceToKill'' has Killifer, the DEA agent in charge of helping Felix Leiter and James Bond arrest BigBad druglord Sanchez, who accepts a bribe of two million dollars to help him escape custody and get the name of the agents that arrested him so he can kill them in revenge, [[ItsPersonal which sets up]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the whole plot]]. Bond eventually feeds Killifer to a bunch of sharks.

->'''Pinball:''' Yeah, you the most crooked nigga on this plane.[[note]]Pinball is played by Creator/DaveChappelle, so NWordPrivileges[[/note]]

->'''Willie:''' I'm DEA! You know what the fuck that means?!\\
'''Pinball:''' Yeah, you the most crooked nigga on this plane.[[note]]Pinball is played by Creator/DaveChappelle, so NWordPrivileges[[/note]]

* [{{Averted}} by Ricky Sandoval in ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'', who spent ''seven years'' infiltrating the Santa Blanca Cartel and never went dirty (well, no more so than an undercover agent would be ''expected to'' while passing himself off as a ruthless drug dealer). [[spoiler: Then it's revealed towards the end that it was ''Ricky'' who arranged the bombing of the American embassy in La Paz, deciding that the American government simply couldn't be relied on to act without "incentive". Whether or not this makes him corrupt or even a traitor, is largely up to the player.]]

* Eric Roberts in ''Film/TheExpendables'' wants to usurp a BananaRepublic and turn it into a narco-state.

* In ''Series/{{Snowfall}}'', DEA Agent Lorena is so obsessed with bringing down the Villanueva cartel that she tries to sabotage a CIA operation and nearly starts an ugly gang war. While she hasn't outright broken the law yet, it seems like only a matter of time.

Subtrope of DirtyCop.

* ''Film/TheProfessional'' has Creator/GaryOldman as AxCrazy DEA Agent Stansfield. His whole DEA "crew" are all [[DirtyCop dirty cops]].

* ''Film/{{Witness}}'': The murder of the undercover cop witnessed by young Amish Samuel turns out to have been perpetrated by corrupt narcotics agents who are determined to keep the 22 million dollars they made from a drug deal a secret. The Police Chief is also in on this.

* DoubleSubverted in the ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'' episode "Heave Fiery Knot", which sees the team chasing Valentine Barker, a supposedly corrupt DEA Field Agent who is using a DEA gun waltzing program (where agents go undercover and posse as weapons merchants using confiscated weaponry in an attempt to arrest the buyers) as a cover for [[ArmsDealer selling guns]] to the Juarez Cartel. However, it turns out Valentine was framed, and it's her boss, Robert Kingston, the deputy director of the DEA, who is the arms dealer. He attempts to murder Valentine and is planning to ship Stinger missiles to the Cartel.

->'''Willie''': I'm DEA! You know what the fuck that means?!\\
'''Pinball''': Yeah, you the most crooked nigga on this plane.[[note]]Pinball is played by Creator/DaveChappelle, so NWordPrivileges[[/note]]

!!Examples

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Film - Live Action]]

[[AC:Live Action TV]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* The resident DEA operative Eddie Guerra from ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'' is a gambler and quite obviously shady. That said, the game eventually presents the resident FBI agent in equally negative light, contrary to the usual portrayal of that agency.