'Billy Grass' and the Investment Group: U.S. Attorneys publish transcripts from DEA narcoterrorism corruption scandal implying ties to recent acting DEA chief
Filings published on Thursday allege the indicted former DEA financial official Paul Campo (a.k.a. Billy Grass) advertised leverage via past work in New York with then-acting DEA admin Derek Maltz.
“What place do we have the entrance?” asked a DEA confidential source known as “CS-1” during a recorded phone call with the former CIA operative Robert M. Sensi on January 22, 2025, whose transcript was published on Thursday by U.S. attorneys.
“Three letters, three letters, Washington D.C.,” replied Sensi, according to the transcript.
“Huh? Yeah, but three letters with the D or with the C?” asked CS-1, using shorthand for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“D, D, D, D,” replied Sensi, according to the transcript.
Sensi and the confidential source, who was posing as a member of Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in need of money laundering and weapons procurement support, surrounded the above exchange with discussion of Sensi’s business partnership with former deputy DEA financial operations chief Paul Campo.
In an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s new DEA leaders, the transcript from the same phone conversation quotes Sensi as having told CS-1 that, “By the way, the two new people that are running that place, the brand new two people that are just coming now to power, he worked with them in New York. They worked on the streets together in New York years ago, so we have a very good entree now to the top two, I think maybe even the top three in that place, I mean the big ones, all the way to the top.”
Sensi’s incendiary implication was that Derek S. Maltz, who had been named as President Trump’s acting DEA administrator the previous day, was a close colleague of Campo’s from New York that was likely to prove helpful to Campo’s covert attempts to aid the CJNG. Maltz had led the DEA’s Special Operations Division (SOD) for nearly ten years, circa May 2005 to July 2014, and had been responsible for the creation of the SOD’s Counter-Narcoterrorism Operations Center (CNTOC) in January 2007. Maltz led the DEA in an acting capacity until May 2025, as a break from his post-DEA career as a senior vice president at the agency’s wiretapping technology provider, PenLink.
(PenLink in July 2023 announced its acquisition of the Israeli internet surveillance firm Cobwebs, whose Tangles product was exposed by this publication to have helped train U.S. police on how to surveil both Black Lives Matter and January 6 protestors, and which has recently contracted its services to ICE.)
Maltz’s LinkedIn profile states that he was Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) of the New York Field Division circa July 2002 to February 2004 after roughly three years as a supervisory special agent in the division circa April 1996 to July 1999. Campo’s professional timeline in New York is less clear, but his role as a special agent in the DEA’s New York division prior to rising to deputy chief of financial operations of the entire agency was noted in the U.S. Justice Department’s December 5 press release regarding the arrest of Campo and Sensi.
Both the Drug Enforcement Administration and Mr. Maltz’s recent employer, PenLink, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The newly published transcripts and details regarding Sensi and Campo’s alleged attempts to support the CJNG further included a screenshot of an apparent WhatsApp group chat — named “Investment Group” — from September 17, 2025. Sensi, CS-1, and Campo — through shorthand for his alias of Billy Grass, “BG” — were apparently shown to be coordinating a pick-up of what became $300,000 the following Tuesday, September 23, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina at a location referred to as “Desmonds.”
The new disclosures from the U.S. Justice Department were part of an opposition for bail requested by Sensi following his medical transfer on Christmas Eve to the CareWell medical facility in East Orange, New Jersey, where he has remained chained to the bed. A status conference was held in the Southern District of New York on Friday regarding Mr. Sensi’s application, with Judge Paul G. Gardephe requesting significant further information from the U.S. Government regarding their information on Sensi’s activities prior to making a decision.
The new filings also provide information on previous vague allegations of Campo and Sensi’s relationship with an unnamed Colombian organization designated by the U.S. Government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). According to U.S. attorneys, “Sensi proposed two sources of supply who had access to cocaine labs or ‘kitchens’ in Colombia: Jeeison Javier Silvia Suarez and Teodosio Pabon Contreras,” the latter of which was further stated to have the nickname of “el Profe” and to have been “indicted in the Southern District of Florida in May 2022 for conspiracy to import cocaine.” The U.S. Government further stated that, “Specifically, Pabon is alleged to have participated in a conspiracy to traffic at least several hundred kilograms, and possibly up to 1,500 kilograms, of cocaine from Cartagena, Colombia to Costa Rica, with an ultimate desitnation to the United States.” “Additionally, according to Sensi, Pabon has ties to the National Liberation Army or ELN,” added Thursday’s filing.
U.S. attorneys further alleged that, during a July 16, 2025 meeting between Sensi, Campo, and CS-1 at a restaurant in New York to arrange a weapons deal, “Sensi also proposed that CS-1 purchase C-4 explosives from Pabon, who he identified as a member of ELN.” “Sensi then proceeded to call Pabon and let CS-1 speak with Pabon,” continued the opposition motion, adding that, “Pabon confirmed that he had access to C-4 explosives and could transport them internationally to Curacao.”
“Sensi also claimed to CS-1 that Pabon worked closely with Dario Antonio Usuga David, a/k/a ‘Otoniel,’ the former leader of the Gulf Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking organization in Colombia that has also been designated as an FTO,” continued the newly public filing.
As a result of numerous redacted sections in the filing — many involving Robert Sensi’s son and would-be bail guarantor Stefano Sensi — Sensi’s alleged October 16, 2025 pickup of $250,000 from CS-1 in Manhattan was said to ahve resulted in “law enforcement conducting surveillance followed him to the Diamond District in New York, where he was observed meeting with Edwin Maya Estrada and Campo.” No other reference to Edwin Maya Estrada appears in the redacted document.
The new disclosures further made reference to Sensi’s movements being tracked through their cell phones, stating in one instance, “Based on cellphone location data, Sensi traveled from the vicinity of his home in Boca Raton, Florida to Charlotte, North Carolina for the meeting.” Much of the ongoing discovery production relates to the U.S. Government having seized “approximately 17 phones” from Campo’s residence.
This report will be updated post-publication with any response received from former acting DEA administrator Derek S. Maltz, the DEA, or PenLink.