DEA agent
(Photo : Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP photos)

US authorities arrested a federal narcotics agents on charges of conspiring with Colombian drug traffickers to steal millions of dollars.

Jose Irizarry and his wife, Nathalia Gomez-Irizarry,  were arrested at their home near San Juan in Puerto Rico on Friday. They were charged with 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and identity theft. 

The agent was known for spending a BMW, three Land Rovers, a $767,000 home in Cartegena, South Florida, and Puerto Rico, and a Tiffany ring worth $30,000.

Prosecutors said the once decorated agent used a sensitive type of undercover DEA investigation and used that to divert money to accounts he and other conspirators controlled. 

"It's a black eye for the DEA to have one of its own engaged in such a high level of corruption," DEA's former Chief of International Operations Mike Vigil said.

Federal prosecutors claim Irizarry's conspiracy also benefited two other unnamed conspirators---an employed Colombian public official and the head of a drug trafficking and money laundering organization. 

The Associated Press reported the DEA agent's lavish yacht parties with bikini-clad prostitutes last year, much to the shock of his colleagues. 

It was also revealed that the head of the drug trafficking and money laundering organization became godfather to the couple's children in 2015. 

The former DEA agent had been a model agent, winning awards and praises from his supervisors prior to being exposed. 

He joined the DEA in Miami in 2009 where he was entrusted with an undercover money-laundering operation using front companies, shell bank accounts, and couriers. 

In 2010, Irizarry was permitted to handle financial transactions at the DEA even after he declared bankruptcy with debts of almost $500,000.

In 2011, Irizzary was said to have used his badge to file false reports and mislead superiors while directing DEA personnel to wire funds to accounts he, his wife, and his co-conspirators controlled. 

He was also accused of sharing sensitive information with his co-conspirators. 

In late 2013, the former DEA agent was said to have helped collect nearly $1.1 million from suspected drug dealers. The money was deposited into undercover DEA bank accounts. Irizarry had wired more than half of the money to accounts controlled by one of his associates. 

The former DEA agent had collected more than 1 million euros in "bulk cash" two years later from traffickers in the Netherlands. He wired $141,000 to a car dealer for himself and the head of the Colombian trafficking group.

Irizarry resigned from his position in January 2018 after his boss in Colombia became suspicious and reassigned him to Washington.

The FBI and the Justice Department began investigating in Colombia when word of the scandal reached Washington the same year. 

Law enforcement officials said Irizarry showed signs of deception in a polygraph exam he took upon admission to the DEA but was nevertheless hired. The case raised questions about the DEA's screening practices in hiring its agents.

Irizarry was also said to have fabricated DEA seizure orders or letters from banks in order to pocket some of the money. 

Irizarry and his wife, Nathalia, posted a bond of $10,000 each. Nathalia Gomez-Irizarry has since declined to comment.