CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANTS, SOURCE DEVELOPMENT & HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

Course Overview:

Human intelligence remains one of the most powerful tools in criminal investigations.

Technology, surveillance, records, and digital evidence all have value, but human sources can provide access, context, motivation, intent, structure, and future plans that may never appear in a report, database, or search warrant return.

This course teaches how high-value human sources are identified, developed, validated, and leveraged to support intelligence collection and criminal investigations.

The focus is not simply on “managing informants.” It is on building an intelligence capability.

You’ll learn how to recognize individuals with intelligence value, develop rapport, build long-term source relationships, validate information, separate truth from misinformation, and convert raw intelligence into investigative and operational opportunities.

Key Topics:

  • Understanding human intelligence as a strategic advantage
  • Identifying individuals with intelligence value
  • Building rapport and long-term source relationships
  • Developing high-value confidential informants
  • Covert communications and clandestine meetings
  • Validating and grading intelligence
  • Separating reliable information from misinformation
  • Converting raw intelligence into operational opportunities

Course Length:

  • 2-days (16 hours) or 3-days (24 hours)

Instructor:

Matthew Hedger is a subject matter expert in anti-money laundering, insider threat mitigation, and organized crime, with specialized expertise in the money laundering techniques of Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations. A former U.S. intelligence officer with 17 years of service at the CIA and NSA, Matthew led sensitive operations across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

He operated for over 10 years undercover inside transnational organized crime networks, including infiltrating a 1%er outlaw motorcycle club and becoming a fully patched member, and cumulatively moved over $100 million throughout his career while posing as a money launderer across multiple transnational organized criminal groups, including a Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization, directly enabling the dismantling of narcotics, weapons, and money laundering operations.

Today, Matthew serves as a trusted keynote speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and financial institutions on emerging threats, financial crime, and organizational risk.

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Who is this for: 

This course is designed for law enforcement officers, investigators, analysts, and supervisors involved in developing intelligence, cultivating sources, managing informants, and converting human intelligence into actionable criminal investigations.

It is especially relevant for:

  • Officers responsible for developing sources or confidential informants
  • Intelligence Units and Criminal Intelligence Analysts
  • Street Crimes Units
  • Gang Units
  • Narcotics Investigators / Drug Task Force Officers / Drug Conspiracy Units
  • Criminal Interdiction Teams
  • Plain Clothes Officers
  • Undercover Officers, or aspiring undercover officers
  • Organized Crime Investigators
  • Federal, State, and Local Task Forces
  • Supervisors of Specialized Units or Investigative Teams
  • Officers working source-driven narcotics, gang, organized crime, or criminal enterprise investigations

Scheduled Classes:

MONTH DAY, 2026 - CITY, STATE, COUNTRY

Hosted by: Agency Name

Spots Available OR FULL

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