#331 Scott Payne - FBI Undercover Agent Reveals the Most Disturbing Cases of His Career

August 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Scott Payne spent over two decades as an FBI undercover agent, but his most dangerous moments weren't always the ones where he was holding a gun. One of the most harrowing came in a cramped basement in Massachusetts, where members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club had just stripped him naked at gunpoint, searching for a wire. They ran their hands over a piece of clothing that held his recording device—and missed it. "I'm watching my life," Payne recalls. "I'm like, here we go." The search ended, and he pulled his pants back up, still alive, still undercover, still trusted by men he was about to send to prison.

The Path to Undercover Work

Payne grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of a landscaper and a book-smart mother. After a brief teenage detour into Satanism—which ended when he claims to have seen a demonic figure while acting out a possession scene—he returned to his Christian faith and pursued psychology and criminal justice in college. He bounced at bars and strip clubs in Charleston, learning "verbal judo" and how to de-escalate fights with minimal force. After a stint as a uniformed deputy and narcotics investigator, he joined the FBI in 1998, assigned to New York City. There he worked drug squads, doing "cameo" undercover roles—quick deliveries of seized narcotics to build cases—before transferring to the border in McAllen, Texas, where he learned to run

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What you'll learn

1 (01:05) **Introduction & Patreon Question** - Scott Payne, retired FBI undercover agent and New York Times bestselling author of *Code Name Pale Horse*, joins the show.
2 (10:22) **Childhood & High School: From Christian Home to Satanism** - Scott grew up in Greenville, SC, playing sports and working for his father's landscaping company, which instilled his work ethic.
3 (25:45) **Psychology, College, and the Path to Law Enforcement** - His interest in psychology was sparked by watching his parents struggle with depression, leading him to study behavioral and child psychology.
4 (44:50) **Early Narcotics Work & The Jump to the FBI** - As a young narcotics investigator, Scott earned the nickname "Little Bus" and learned the ropes of undercover work, doing quick drug buys and vice operations.
5 (79:00) **New York City, 9/11, and the Border** - Scott got his wish to work undercover in New York City on the Colombian Drug Squad, doing "cameo" undercover roles like delivering seized drug packages.
6 (103:51) **Extortion Kidnappings & Human Smuggling** - Scott describes his high success rate in recovering kidnap victims by working with a board liaison officer who could negotiate with the cartels in Mexico.
7 (112:36) **FBI Undercover Certification & The Outlaws MC** - In 2002, Scott got certified as an FBI undercover, a grueling, sleep-deprived two-week school with a less-than-100% graduation rate, which he calls the second-hardest certification after HRT.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Scott Payne

Show Notes

Scott Payne is a retired FBI Special Agent who spent twenty-eight years in law enforcement investigating drug trafficking organizations, human traffickers, outlaw motorcycle clubs, gangs, public corruption, and domestic terrorists.

He served as the primary undercover agent on dozens of operations, including infiltrations of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club and The Base, a violent neo-Nazi accelerationist group. Payne also served on an FBI SWAT team and trained agents in firearms, tactics, active-shooter response, and undercover operations.

He is the New York Times bestselling author of Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America’s Nazis.

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Scott Payne Links:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/scottpaynebigcountry

Book - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Code-Name-Pale-Horse/Scott-Payne/9781668032916

Website - scottpaynebigcountry.com

X - https://x.com/Scott_D_Payne

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