The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Corrupt Police Officer: I Arrested Drug Dealers, Then Sold Their Drugs! There’s Massive Corruption Going On Today! - Mike Dowd
Thu, 03 Apr 2025
He was supposed to fight crime but broke every rule in the book - this is the real story of NYPD’s dirtiest cop, Mike Dowd. Mike Dowd is a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who became corrupt and worked for the Dominican-American Diaz criminal organisation. He was arrested in 1992 for drug distribution and served 12 years in prison. In this conversation, Mike and Steven discuss topics such as, how Mike made $40,000 a day from police corruption, the secrets that NYPD don’t want you to know, how Mike never thought he’d get caught as a cop, and how getting arrested saved Mike’s life. 00:00 Intro 02:17 NY’s Dirtiest Cop 03:02 How Many Crimes Did Mike Commit? 04:21 Mike Stole Someone’s Porn Collection 08:48 Entering the Police Force 09:07 Did Mike Mean the Oath He Took? 09:41 Integrity Training at the Academy 11:04 We Were Always Told to Cover Our Ass 12:23 The Police Agree They Won't Snitch on Each Other 15:21 Mike Was Told to Stop Arresting People 18:21 Taxing People Instead of Arresting Them 19:52 Were Cops Given Sexual Favours? 20:53 Mike’s Sergeant Encouraging Robbing Money 23:10 Did Seeing Dead Bodies Bother Mike? 27:11 Started Dealing Drugs 29:20 Biggest Heist 30:07 Were Other Cops Involved in Stealing and Dealing? 33:07 Did Mike Ever Think He Was Going to Get Caught? 33:39 Mike’s Personal Life 34:23 Why Didn't You Stop? 34:31 Mike Receiving Death Threats from Another Officer 38:00 Baron Perez, the Brooklyn Middleman 38:21 Meeting La Compañía 39:42 La Compañía Boss Putting a Hit on Him 41:15 Meeting Adam Diaz 43:00 Mike Saving Adam Diaz’s Money 43:44 Franklin and Coke – Local Bandits Who Robbed Dealers 45:11 Ads 46:03 Officer Venable and Feeling Guilt 48:06 How Did Mike’s Guilt Manifest Physically? 50:02 Who Had You Become? 51:37 Coming Home from Rehab 53:20 How Long Were You in Rehab For? 53:51 Why Didn't You Stop If You Knew They Were Onto You? 54:44 The Year You Got Arrested 57:35 How Did It Feel When You Got Arrested? 59:56 Advice About Living an Authentic Life 01:03:21 Getting Released on Bail 01:04:43 Kidnapping Scandal to Pay Family’s Bail 01:06:31 Arrested for the Second Time 01:08:12 The Day You Went to Prison 01:09:53 Ads 01:10:54 What Was Your Family Going Through? 01:12:25 First Time Mike’s Mum Came to See Him in Prison 01:13:18 Mike Getting Emotional in Front of His Mum 01:14:23 Mike’s Mum Tried to Keep Him Straight 01:16:38 Mike’s Mother Not Showing Him Love 01:18:04 Reflections on Parents After Everything 01:20:27 Coming Out of Jail at 44 01:22:02 Being Institutionalised 01:23:12 Life After Jail 01:24:28 What Did Mike Need to Hear at 18? 01:26:57 Does Corruption Still Happen Today? 01:29:42 What Has the Universe Put You Here to Share? Follow Mike: Instagram - https://g2ul0.app.link/mb66mKk82Rb ‘Good Cop Bad Cop Podcast' - https://g2ul0.app.link/QmZosMi82Rb Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook You can purchase the The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards: Second Edition, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb Sign up to receive email updates about Diary Of A CEO here: https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt Ready to think like a CEO? Gain access to the 100 CEOs newsletter here: https://bit.ly/100-ceos-newsletter Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Linkedin Ads - https://www.linkedin.com/DIARY Perfect Ted - https://www.perfectted.com with code DIARY40 for 40% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Mike Dowd and why is he called NY's dirtiest cop?
I've never heard a story like this in my life. The story of drug trafficking, bribery, kidnapping, and even murder, which earned you the nickname of America's dirtiest cop. And I want to know everything. Okay, but let's just be clear.
If you choose to have a conversation with me about this, you're going to hear things that you won't like. Let me just say this. Being a New York cop was the greatest job in the world. But it's not built for somebody to come in and be the knight in shining armor. You're working minimal wage. Civilians are against you, and you're directly told not to make drug arrests. Why?
Oh, because they got a budget to manage. And the average amount of overtime for one crack arrest was 18 hours. So that leads to the streets becoming unwieldy. So what happens is a guy like me, who's entrepreneurial spirit, shows up and says, there's a way to control this. I can't arrest them, so I tax them. And that escalated. Greed is powerful, bro. But what happens then? You become God.
I was making more than the president of the United States by protecting one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in New York. But I was losing control and I became the face of New York City's corruption problem.
People want to be dead. And then in 1992, you were arrested and you admitted to hundreds of crimes. But what about your family at this point? You know, that was tough. They're really special people. Mike, we spoke to your parents. Do you want to see what they said?
I'm Carol Dowd. And I'm Michael Dowd's mother.
I will work tirelessly from now until forever to make the show better and better and better and better. Mike. Mike. When people do interviews with you, they often describe you as New York's dirtiest cop.
No.
And I watched that over and over again in your interviews, and I wondered as I watched people calling you New York's dirtiest cop, how that makes you feel. Not good.
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Chapter 2: How did Mike Dowd become involved in police corruption?
I, you know, no. I mean, I guess, so the answer to, so if you say no, I mean, that means that you have no concern or care. So it was an immature yes. So you take that oath, you don't really mean it. And I'm embarrassed if I say, I want to be truthful because I don't like to lie. I felt pride when I said it. Is that? I felt full of pride when I said it.
And as part of your training to become a police officer, you do some integrity training. Yes. Some like ethics training to make sure that police officers are like straight and narrow and understand ethics.
So one of the things that I would suggest on that statement or that whole genre is it wasn't necessarily – we weren't necessarily trained on integrity or ethics. We were trained on this is what would happen to you if – Don't take $5 from a motorist or $50 from a motorist because that will lead to, one, you being arrested and being all over the news, and then all the cops are going to hate you.
Like, it was never really explained to you as a student in the academy the depth of the lack of integrity and what you're actually affecting.
Okay. Like the fundamental issue if we don't trust law enforcement and the downstream consequences.
Thanks for saying it that way, yes. Because it destroys the very fabric of what people trust in law enforcement. Because when you need help, you've got to call somebody, and the person that shows up has to be trustworthy. I would argue, because I robbed money from drug dealers and even their drugs, you can still trust me, right? That's what I would argue.
Because if you're not doing those things, essentially, you're safe with me and I will give you the best police service that you ever asked for and probably go above and beyond to help you.
There was some kind of comment made at the end of your training by an internal affairs academy instructor, which basically said to be successful as a cop, don't follow these rules, the ethics rules that you were just given.
So, yes. So that wasn't the internal affairs officer that said that. That would be your academy instructor.
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Chapter 3: What crimes did Mike Dowd commit as a police officer?
lowest points this was the best feeling in the world almost like almost like i was like finally it's over it's finally over i can go on with my life somehow i didn't know it would take almost 15 years well even more when you think about probation and a lot of this shit you were relieved When I was going to work every day, I was going to work with anxiety and fear.
I no longer had to have that fear. It was gone. Of course, I didn't know what I would be facing. I figured this would work out. Like, that's how I thought.
You know, when you say you're going to work with anxiety and fear, earlier on you said you weren't scared of being arrested. I wasn't scared of being arrested.
I was afraid of ruining my life. Okay. And living a double life, you know, I'm lying to my wife, I'm lying to my family, I'm lying to the department, I'm lying to myself, I'm lying to my young child, two children at this point. You know, everything's a lie. So this anxiety and fear in that, the fear of arrest really never entered my mind.
It's funny when you describe being arrested and you reference it almost like it was your moment of freedom.
I still do today, yeah. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. If I could capsulize, put that in a bottle, the peace I had at that moment, I could probably live in that peace my entire life and wish for that peace, the peace that comes over you when that pressure comes off your life because I no longer have to live a lie.
Obviously, most people can't relate because they've never been in such a situation where they've been like arrested. But I think to some degree, people can relate with the feeling of living a life that's like inauthentic to them and then something happening which forces them to course correct.
Yeah. I mean, some people kill themselves. Other people overcome it and become the better version of themselves. Either they make lemonade out of the lemons, or they go on to become ruinous. And I told you, I'm looking for that diamond in that pile of shit. So to me, it was freedom. How old's your child now, your son? I have two. My oldest son, he'll be turning 40. And my younger son is 33 or 34.
So what advice, based on your experience in that moment, would you give to your kids about living an authentic life and lying?
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