confidential informant

[kon-fi-den-shuhl in-fawr-muhnt]

noun

1. a person who works undercover for law enforcement to gather information about felonious criminal activities: some confidential informants are criminals themselves, hired to work undercover in exchange for leniency or exoneration: CI

   We’re told that this elusive drug lord was finally taken down thanks largely to a confidential informant, whose identity remains fiercely protected.

Word History and Origins

Origin of confidential informant¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

“So you know what happened in Dearborn?” one of the 19-year-old men told a confidential informant on a messaging app after details of the Michigan case became public, according to a criminal complaint filed in New Jersey federal court.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Nina, who has managed to gather evidence of Jim crossing state lines to deliver the heart, which was stolen, and that Saxton may have been responsible for his brother’s death, bullies and tempts him into becoming a confidential informant.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It was based on him “wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie” and a “vague and uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s Western clique in New York — a place he has never lived.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Smirnov was a longtime confidential informant who had been feeding his FBI handler information about an array of criminal activities.

Read more on Salon

A few weeks after the incident, according to Iza’s indictment, Deputy 1 contacted a narcotics detective and told him a confidential informant claimed the party planner had large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine at his house.

Read more on Los Angeles Times