A longtime confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration who pulled in millions of dollars from the government is walking out of court with no additional prison time.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin sentenced 48-year-old Andres Zapata to time served and ordered him to pay $1.2 million in restitution after he admitted he failed to report nearly $4 million he received as a DEA confidential informant. Zapata had already spent more than a year locked up in Colombia before being extradited to the United States last year, and he pleaded guilty in July 2025. The sentencing lands in the middle of a broader federal investigation into possible misconduct by DEA agents.
According to The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge David Ezra described Zapata as "very cooperative" during the hearing. Internal DEA records reviewed by the AP show the agency first put Zapata on its books in 1998 and paid him roughly $3.8 million between 2015 and 2020. Over about two decades, those records indicate he collected more than $4.6 million in informant payments. Prosecutors, the AP reports, pegged the $1.2 million restitution figure to what they say is the government's estimated tax loss.
Allegations Of Agent Misconduct And 'Team America'
Zapata's case is tangled up with the fallout from disgraced former DEA agent José Irizarry and the loose circle of agents, prosecutors and informants that insiders dubbed "Team America." As detailed by The Independent, investigators have been combing through private chats and video clips that appear to show lavish travel, late-night partying and accusations that some operatives tapped informant money for jewelry, prostitutes and vacations. The material cited in that reporting is part of a wider probe into how undercover cash pickups were handled and who benefited.
Defense: Informants Do Not Get Tax Forms
Zapata's defense argued that the tax mess was practically built into the way the government pays its sources. His attorney told the court that confidential informants typically do not receive 1099s or W-9s and that many payments are handed over with no receipts at all. "You don't know what you owe. You sign a piece of paper for money. You don't get receipts," lawyer Don Bailey said in court, according to The Associated Press. Prosecutors nevertheless secured a guilty plea last July to a single count of failing to report income on tax returns.
What Comes Next
Federal investigators say Zapata's cooperation has become a crucial thread in the larger inquiry, which has already produced at least one conviction and is still looking at whether other officials misused undercover funds, as The Independent reports. For now, the court has kept several records under seal, and legal observers note that the restitution order, paired with Zapata's ongoing cooperation, could set the stage for more filings or internal reforms at the agency. The Justice Department and the DEA have so far declined to publicly spell out where the broader investigation is headed.
The outcome leaves a blunt question hanging over law enforcement circles in Austin and beyond: how do agencies lean on the tactical value of paid informants while still enforcing basic rules about money and ethics. Zapata's case, once buried in classified files and undercover ledgers, is now a public reminder of what can surface when those closed-door relationships land in open court.
