I Was a Federal Agent for 21 Years… It Was Worse Than You Think | Kenneth Strange

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.8 • 745 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kenneth Strange joins Locked In with Ian Bick to share his journey from being a Spanish and English teacher in New York to spending over two decades as a federal agent working some of the most complex cases in the system. After living in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s, where he witnessed early signs of extremism that shaped his career, Kenneth went on to work with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Justice. In this episode, he breaks down his 21 years in federal law enforcement, including terrorism investigations, white collar crime cases, and his time in internal affairs. He also shares what he saw from the inside, how these cases are actually handled, and the reality of working within the system. _____________________________________________ #FBI #FederalAgent #TrueCrime #LawEnforcement #CrimeStories #Undercover #Corruption #LockedInPodcast _____________________________________________ Connect with Kenneth Strange: https://kennethstrange.com/ _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Inside the FBI & Terrorism Cases (Full Story) 01:12 Growing Up in Brooklyn 02:00 Early Curiosity & Love of Storytelling 03:07 Relationship with My Father 05:32 Education, Language & Early Influences 07:27 Choosing a Career Path 07:41 Teaching in Saudi Arabia & Exposure to Terrorism 13:10 Understanding Terrorism in the Middle East 19:59 Deciding to Serve: FBI vs CIA 25:04 FBI Training & Early Challenges 32:05 First Assignment: Newark & Joint Terrorism Task Force 35:12 Early Terrorism Investigations (IRA Case) 38:09 International Cases & Real Threats 44:30 Inside U.S. Terror Cells & Missed Warnings 57:40 Leaving the FBI & Transition to Fraud Cases 01:04:20 Internal Affairs & Inspector General Work 01:08:42 Bureau of Prisons Investigations & Corruption Cases 01:19:12 Investigating Corruption in Law Enforcement 01:24:13 “Bad Apples” in Policing & Lessons Learned 01:27:03 Border Patrol Corruption Investigations 01:30:03 Retirement, Life Lessons & Final Thoughts _____________________________________________ To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I uncovered this double agent.
0:02.0	I went out to just check into a murder.
0:04.0	I went over to the 6-0 precinct in Brooklyn in Coney Island.
0:07.0	And then when I got into the box and I started going through the documents, this and that,
0:11.0	I started to come find these top secret things from Fort Bragg on how to make explosives,
0:17.0	all kinds of terrible things.
0:19.0	What is this deceased guy? What is he doing with the stuff out of Fort Bradford?
0:23.8	Something's wrong here. I've had a 21-year federal career with the FBI. I was on the Joint Terrorism
0:30.7	Task Force, working principally Middle East terrorism. Then I went over to the U.S. Agency for International
0:36.1	Development, working several overseas cases.
0:39.3	And finally, I landed on the southwest border first and later Los Angeles with the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General,
0:46.3	where we worked an array of cases from public corruption to bribery, Bureau of Prison cases,, et cetera, so forth and so on.
0:55.4	Kenneth Strange talks about his 21 years as a federal agent,
0:58.9	working terrorism, fraud, and internal affairs cases, and what he saw from inside the system.
1:09.0	So, Ian, I grew up in a little place you probably've never heard of, Brooklyn, New York.
1:15.2	I grew up there. I was the oldest of five kids. And my dad was a cop, NYPD. My mother was a,
1:23.4	had been a secretary. And then when she had the five kids, she became a homemaker.
1:28.9	And after we all graduated college, she became an administrative assistant.
1:35.7	So, you know, growing up in Brooklyn, lived in a row house, one of those unremarkable row houses,
1:42.3	plenty of kids to play with in Brooklyn, you know, basically
1:46.8	lower middle class, middle class, but always with friends. I could go right down the street
1:52.2	knocking on doors until I had like 10 people hanging with me. So a great, great place to grow up.
	...

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