DREW CAMPI (FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT) STOPS BY 5/15/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

That's right. We have someone special, a special agent here from the FBI. He's retired.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Why is he not on mic?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Well, because this is his friend. This is the other special agent. They're all special. Uh-huh. Okay. Because they're called special agents. Got it. Uh the FBI is in the house today. It is law enforcement appreciation month. And today is um, you know, this whole week. They're celebrating National Police Week. We talked about that earlier. Yep. And here with uh to tell us about an event that we had here locally is former FBI special agent Drew Campy. Good morning and welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Good morning. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

You know, I usually you know you're not wearing your aviators, you're not wearing a black suit.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

No, I I hung those up six years ago.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Retired FBI agents wear plaid. Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

This one does. Quiet, he's undercover.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

So tell us a little bit about your crew, uh your career, Drew.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Uh sure. Um first I uh was in the Army, I was an attack helicopter pilot for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Uh flew Cobras. And then um just based on how much deployment I was doing, uh it was hard on the family, so I uh luckily transitioned to the FBI. Um and I started my career uh in the New York uh field office uh where I was there for 9-11.

unknown 1:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

And then I was uh That kind of changed the job, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, so I was working uh Russian counterintelligence in New York up until 9-11, and then on obviously on September 12th, everyone started working terrorism.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Um the FBI terrorism task force.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I was actually I was on the task force. Um I was uh moved over to uh uh uh uh terrorism squad in New York.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

That was a big deal because that's when everybody put their best minds together from all different angles. And really New York became the premier task force.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yes, in fact, uh New York a actually was the original FBI uh terrorism task force years before that. But I would say that nine.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Was that after ninety-two or ninety-three when the when the World Trade Center bombing came from the Federal Speaker?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yes, so the first World Trade Center. Um actually I think they existed before that. Oh wow, okay. Not to the degree that they became.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Um but then I after that I I I went back to work in counterintelligence. I went to FBI headquarters as a supervisor. Um I went down to the the uh Montgomery office for a few years, uh, went to Trenton, uh New Jersey for a few years as the supervisory special agent uh uh for the resident agency in Trenton. Then I became an assistant special agent in charge in the Newark division.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

All right.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Then I got promoted to uh what they call the senior executive, and uh my best gig in the bureau was I was appointed uh to become the chief of counter espionage at the CIA, which uh was an amazing experience. Wow. Um then I got promoted from there into the deputy assistant director position. Um and then I closed out my career as a special agent in charge back in the New York office. So I was lucky enough to start and end my career uh in New York. Wow. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

All right, so you've seen a a few things.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I I've I've seen more than my share. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So uh so there is an organization here of of special agents.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yeah uh retired. Retired. We call it the Society of uh Former Special Agents of the FBI Carolina Grand Strand Chapter, and I happen to be the current chair of that chapter.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Okay, so what do you guys do when you get together?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

So we we try to have a monthly luncheon, um and we like to have uh speakers come to us, uh talk to us about uh how they interact with the FBI. So we like to have like we've had the solicitor Jimmy Richardson on uh come talk to us uh multiple times, uh, but chiefs of police will come talk to us. Uh we've had fellow other um federal agency retirees come talk to us just to talk about the interaction because the FBI can't do their job by themselves. We need the help first we need citizens to be behind us, uh, and then we need the local, uh county and state law enforcements, uh all the departments to be uh in concert, work in concert with us. Um and and to to the most to the greatest extent possible, I believe that's true that we work well together.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Well, I don't know, you guys get a lot of bad press sometimes. I mean you have the whole Savannah Guthrie's mom missing and the battle between the sheriff and the FBI. You got Comey, you got, you know, Cash Patel, you know, and you know, is he drunk, is he partying with the hockey team?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of times, though, that's the media. I think it's a distraction. Um and quite frankly, uh we our organization exists to support the current rank and file agents of the FBI. Okay. So we try not to get distracted by the noise on the side. Our job w when I was on on board, uh I I supported and defended the Constitution. That's that's what every FBI agent swears to do. Protect America, uphold the Constitution. And that's what we take seriously.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

You have to focus.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

You have to avoid the distractions. Let the politics play out the way they will. Um and that's gonna ebb and flow, and the the pendulum swings back and forth depending on who's in power, uh, who's in office. Um but I think uh to day to day the the rank and file agents are focused on on really upholding the Constitution and protecting uh their fellow citizens. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

So if there's someone out there considering a law enforcement career, what makes the FBI different, better, more exciting? Like is there is there a difference between the Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Uh I would say uh focus and jurisdiction. So uh depending on the FBI office that you get assigned to, uh thresholds are different. So if you're working in a smaller office, uh uh Montgomery, um if there's um uh uh um like a string of bank robberies, if the th if the th if the the cumulative amount isn't and there's no violence, but it will automatically go to any violence. But if they're no what we call note jobs, um uh maybe if it's only a thousand dollars taken, which is a lot of money to any of us, but it may not meet the threshold in New York because they're having bank robberies that are being millions of dollars or embezzlement and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Uh whereas in Montgomery, maybe we would work that uh because it was uh we just didn't have the s the scale. Um so I would say uh what attracted me to the the Bureau was the fact that I already had 10 years of federal government service. Um so it allowed me to continue my service and and and work towards my pension, of course. Um but yeah, I would say jurisdiction, scope, scale, uh of of the investigations. Um but we can't do it by ourselves, and I'll give you a great example. If you were working drugs, if if if a local law enforcement officer um picks up a dealer, we're not gonna be too uh worried about that dealer, but we want his supply and we want to see where it comes. And now we're talking transnational, uh you know, the cartels, uh interstate and inner country, yeah. Uh you know, between uh how it's coming into the country. Too much, too much going on. Fentanyl, uh all of the drugs that are still coming into our country. Um it it's it's just too much. So we need to, you know, uh and I I do think, uh and you you had mentioned uh Kosh Patel earlier, I do think that they have uh uh successfully reoriented some of the attention back to combating some of that violent crime associated with drugs.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, he's been he's been releasing all sorts of lists of their accomplishments.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yes, and and I applaud all of those accomplishments. When they got there, there were two FBIs. There were ones that were politically motivated and there were ones that were really good cops.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, you know, it it's interesting that you say that. Um I remember when I was uh on the, you know, just on the floor in New York, we never talked about politics. It was I'm I'm very apolitical. Uh I tend to be conservative, but I am not uh political. Um in fact the Hatch Act prevents us from being uh too political, right? So uh so I still subscribe to the Hatch Act. Uh I prefer it that way. Uh but so there was never a discussion. Oh, well, is that is that subject a Republican or a Democrat? It never came up, right? Um But later, I I believe some of that may become true at some point. Uh the higher you go up, maybe there is some a little uh political influence. Remember, the director well, yeah, I'm being I'm being kind. Um the director is appointed, right, uh by a politician. Yeah. Right. So there's gonna take that flavor. But again, the rank and file tends not to be so focused on the politics.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

And I believe that. Yeah. I do believe we've heard that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

It's the upper floors that were the political ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

They're the ones always embarrassing everybody. Yeah. I I I will say that even when I was a deputy. It can. You know, or union, police union. It's very political and money and power.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

So it happens all all around. Yeah. You know, so it's not just the FBI.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

I I always thought, you know, um the director should have been is supposed to be outward facing, and then the deputy director should be inward facing, running the day-to-day operations of the organization. And I think that that worked pretty well. Um so uh yeah, I I I hope my my greatest concern is that the FBI does become too political, but I don't know that that's happening. Um I talk, you know, we talk we have regularly we have some of the current uh uh Myrtle Beach uh resident agency agents come to our lunch and and and they're focused on the job. They're focused on their subjects irrespective of politics. So I I still believe that at the end of the day, your FBI, it's not my FBI, it's our FBI, is still focused on the right things.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah. And I I would agree with that. It's just that we are very political in this room. Yes. So we see everything through a political lens, and it's very frustrating when we want justice to be done and action.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Actions speak louder than words. When they're going after the moms protesting, you know, calmly and peacefully and praying over abortion clinics, for an example. Right. Seeing them scooped up in these ridiculous charges thrown at them. I know that's working in tandem with the DOJ. That's also somewhat political slanted. Yeah, I would say even more political. More so, yeah. And and they're taking orders from the DOJ. So you know, well, we are subordinate to the DOJ.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Exactly. So I get that.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

And it's it must be frustrating when you're used like that as a tool.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Again, I never personally experienced it. I was lucky in the counterintelligence uh realm and the terrorism, everyone no one would get in the way of working a terrorism case or a counterintelligence case. Um it was more uh finite. Now I know um some of the counterintelligence cases recently that have come to light were flawed because of some of the misrepresentations at the FISA court and things like that. Uh crossfire hurricane, you know, for instance. But um but predominantly uh that that was not the case uh because we all collectively agree we have uh hostile adversaries and that we all have to work together to prevent their success.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Trevor Burrus We also see a lot of hostility sometimes between local and federal.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah, I think Hollywood makes more of that. Uh I always go back to the um uh what's the Bruce Willis movie? Um Die Hard? Die Hard. Yeah. Where they, you know, the FBI is here, um Agent Johnson, and this is Agent Johnson and all that. Yeah. That's hype. And no, we're not brothers. And we're not brothers, right? Yeah. No, it's it's it's classic, uh, but it's over it's hyped. Um I would say that predominantly. The issue is sometimes the FBI is investigating something else. Well, no. Deeper. Well, or a problem in that police department.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

So you have color of law violations that if a police officer is breaking a law, now we get involved in investigating that. And that could be created tension, right? Yeah. But that's that's the the extreme minority. Most of the time we work very well together. Again, uh even better when we have task force officers.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

So the FBI will uh uh invite uh locals and state um law enforcement officers to sit on their task force. They're actually deputized by the FBI. So they have both the the state powers that they're given and the federal authority so that their their jurisdiction gets broad. Um and it allows us to do a lot of uh uh more focused investigations at the local level using the local resources to the advantage of everybody.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

You know, like the one thing I noticed about the missing case of Nancy Guthrie was the battle over the DNA and the testing.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

So do you as you know, does the FBI have better testing and better technology?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

It's always been my understanding that the FBI lab was the standard. That's the golden standard. The golden standard. Uh and I've I've actually personally witnessed um that either the lab. It used to be you could see part of the lab when you went on the FBI uh tour.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Um that was pre-9-11. After that, you couldn't. But um so I I can't speak to the other labs that are out there, but I do know that a lot of them are uh um validated by the FBI lab. So I think they're incorporating a lot of the same techniques and ki capabilities. Um but it's always been uh my understanding that the FBI lab is the gold standard. So uh I know um in all of the investigations that I was a part of, if we had uh physical evidence, DNA, and even bomb uh uh you know from our our our hazardous materials uh uh lab uh which is now in Huntsville, um we we knew that we were gonna get the right results the first time. It may take an extra day or so, but if it was extremely important, we were putting on it a helicopter helicopter to fly it to Quantico or getting it on a plane to, you know, and so and we would establish the chain of custody and make sure that it was you know handled as evidence. But yeah. So All right.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Well, I hope you enjoyed the Liz Callaway interrogation chair. No, absolutely. It was my pleasure. Uh before we go, I wanted you to give um and Nick, I really wanted him to do this because this is why he's here. He's here to honor some officers of the year for um the the National Police Week. So please go ahead and tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's that's the most important thing to do. Is um so with the help of uh the the gentleman that's standing next to me, Jim Furry and two others in our chapter, um we created um uh an award to recognize those um officers in our area. So three real quick that came out that were awarded yesterday at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. Um and no, I'm not getting paid to plug them, but uh they it is a beautiful location. But so the first one was unfortunately uh a sheriff's deputy out in Darlington, uh Deputy Mason, was ambushed uh and murdered while uh serving a warrant.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Um are these within the last year, like 2025? So 2025, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

So this was back in July of 25, uh, and um he was ambushed, but before he succumbed to his injuries, he was able to return fire, killing the subject. Um another sheriff deputy was wounded, and he so he he he neutralized the threat and saved the lives of two other deputies. Wow so we honored him uh postomously uh uh deputy uh mason was his name. And I met his two of his sisters yesterday and awarded them uh the the the plaque. Then this the the next one was uh Sergeant Bellamy in the North Myrtle Beach um department uh last summer. A golf cart. He happened just to be driving by. If you want to talk about duty? No, he was on duty, but just happened to glance over and see there was this disturbance in the water. Um, and it turned out to be a golf cart that had a crash and it inverted. Flipped over. Flipped over. And so he gets on scene and there's four people still strapped in. He didn't know there were four people, one of them was submerged, trapped. So thankfully, uh God put him there. I have no doubt about it for that. Um cuts cuts the the first lady out of her seatbelt and she said, No, my grandson, my grandson. So he feels down in the water and there's this lifeless body of a four-year-old boy. He cuts him out, he's unresponsive, and he resuscitates him after several minutes of CPR, gets him to the emergency room hospital, and the the boy is um made a complete recovery. So that's amazing, right? So that's crazy. That's the hand of God, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

So then the third one was a special agent in um uh Tyler uh Kontorowski. Um he uh and he was more for the for a lot of things, but three uh specific cases. Um one uh was unfortunately a doctor that was abusing children, so it's uh he's in a a position of trust, so that's a case that's going on. Um there was um a case where a uh uh a subject uh murdered a Marion County emergency um uh worker here and then traveled uh over to New Mexico and murdered a lot of the city. I remember that story, yeah. So they captured him, and he's actually a death penalty case, so deservingly. Yeah. And then the third one was a firearm straw arm purchase.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

And it was the person that supplied the the weapon to the guy that ambushed Sergeant. Yeah, straw purchases. Full circle. Yeah. So those were the three awardees yesterday. The the committee did an amazing job of getting the word out, and that's why I'm here is I want even more re recipi uh r respondents next year uh to make our job even harder uh to recognize the.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Do you award three every year?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Um yeah, so the the reasoning behind that is we want to uh strengthen or enhance the relationships uh of the FBI. So we talk with um the the other agencies. Well, the the the current uh supervisor of the RA here, and we ask them, hey, what what are your jurisdictional needs? So we we basically put it down to the Florence area, the Myrtle Beach area, and then we pick an uh also an agent. So it's local, local in those two jurisdictional areas, and then an FBI agent. So that's how we that's how we that was our process.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

All right. Well, Drew Campy, so um how do you guys call yourselves when you are retired? I mean, do we still call you the an FBI supervisory special agent?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Uh no, I go by Drew. I'm proud. I'm proud as a retired FBI. And I'm a veteran, uh, uh fortunate. People thank me for my service all the time. I said no, thank you. Uh what an honor it was to serve, right? I can call you an agent.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

You agent Drew Campy? Agent, yeah, special agent is what they call, you know, refer to us as are you gonna hold that mind device up now so I forget everything.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So but if you wrap your head in tinfoil, that it won't work.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

I never saw that part in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

It was very cool to meet you. It was my agent campy. Thank you. And thanks, Jim, for setting this up. I I loved it. I loved it. Come back anytime. Uh we're gonna take a quick break and uh happy National Police Week.