Cops have issues like every other ordinary citizen, but the recent discovery of an FBI agent who was a heroin junkie in the prestigious Washington, D.C. field office has become epic.
FBI agent Matthew Lowry, 33, went missing from the office last September 2014. Colleagues feared the worst since he was involved in high level undercover operations with names like “Midnight Hustle.”
After a search they discovered Lowry and his government issued car in the lot of a construction yard, Lowry was by all accounts disheveled and incoherent and slumped over the wheel of his car. When agents searched his car they discovered opened evidence bags of heroin, empty packets of the drug and seized guns.
It turned out that Lowry was not only investigating heroin traffickers, he was also using the seized evidence to get high.
Lowry’s elaborate scheme lasted for approximately a year in which he admitted he used heroin every day. Because of lax regulations with evidence, Lowry would regularly remove evidence bags under the pretense of taking it to a lab for testing and use the drugs. Because of the backlog at the drug testing lab he was able to keep the evidence for many weeks. He would then forge signatures of fellow agents and supervisors on forms and remove barcodes on the bags after replacing the used heroin with laxative powder or creatine.
Because of Lowry’s actions, evidence seized in cases involving 28 known or suspected drug dealers is unusable. It is estimated that as many as 150 other defendants could be affected as well as dozens of undercover operations. Lowry has not been charged with a crime, but he was suspended from his job and entered into drug counseling immediately after he was found in September.
