Operation Shattered Shield: The NOPD's Most Corrupt Era

This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

This Feels Criminal | Formerly Killer Queens

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the early 1990s, New Orleans was known as the "Murder Capital of America," but the most dangerous criminals weren't just on the streets—some were wearing badges. Today on This Feels Criminal, Tyrella and Nikita break down Operation Shattered Shield, the massive FBI sting that exposed deep-seated corruption within the NOPD.

We follow the story of the Hardy Brothers, a violent drug syndicate protected by the very officers sworn to stop them. At the center of it all is Officer Len Davis, a man so feared he was nicknamed "The Desire Projects Terrorist." When 32-year-old mother Kim Groves filed a brutality complaint against him, she had no idea she was signing her own death warrant.

In this episode, we discuss:

The Hardy Boys: How Wayne and Paul Hardy built a drug empire with help from inside the police department.
The FBI Sting: How an undercover agent posing as a Miami dealer caught NOPD officers guarding shipments of cocaine.
The Betrayal of Kim Groves: The heartbreaking story of a mother who stood up for her community and the chilling moment her murder was caught on an FBI wire.
The Aftermath: The fallout of the 2012 DOJ consent decree and the quest for reform in New Orleans.

Want access to our first 45 episodes? Grab em here! We've made them available for free to anyone who signs up! Remember, these episodes were recorded when we had no idea what we were doing, so just keep that in mind. The audio isn't the quality we would want to put out now, but the cases are on point! Visit killerqueens.link/og to download and binge all the archived episodes today!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you ever hear a story and think, we're not getting the full picture?
0:08.6	That's where we start. On this field's criminal, we unpack crime, corruption, and conspiracy
0:14.0	with curiosity, context, and just a touch of chaos. We step outside the timelines and ask better
0:20.2	questions and explore the systems
0:21.9	behind the story, all in a voice that feels more like a friend than a reporter. Because when you
0:26.4	identify the patterns, you can't unsee how often they show up. All right, you guys, welcome to
0:34.8	another episode of this feels criminal. We're going to tell you a true crime story, but it's going to be in like a light and breezy kind of way.
0:41.9	Yes, and it's going to be so fun.
0:44.9	It, okay, this is, this case is crazy.
0:47.9	This case feels criminal for lots of reasons.
0:51.6	So many reasons.
0:53.1	And we're going to have to talk about police corruption.
0:58.0	Oh, my favorite thing to talk about.
1:01.2	It is rampant in this area.
1:04.7	Yeah.
1:05.8	Yeah.
1:06.5	So we're talking about Operation Shattered Shield.
1:10.8	And there is an episode that you can watch about it on the FBI files.
1:17.2	Is that what it's called?
1:18.8	And it is called Operation Shattered Shield.
1:21.1	So very on the nose.
1:23.2	Very on the nose.
	...

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