Federal prosecutors have filed charges against two Manhattan-based DEA agents claiming that the pair secretly owned a strip club and that they hired illegal aliens as exotic dancers and sex workers.

Now retired agent David Polos, 51, and 45-year-old DEA employee Glen Glover–who is on administrative leave–are charged with owning the Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in Hackensack, New Jersey. The federal complaint also says they ran the club via computers and cell phones while they were on the job in the Manhattan DEA office. The pair allegedly also made false statements with the agency, claiming that they had no outside employment or businesses, and are accused of lying during a security background check.

It is likely that their security clearances would have been denied and their government jobs put in jeopardy if they admitted to the alleged side-line business.

The charges were filed by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York; Diego Rodriguez, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office; and Ronald R. Gardella, who leads the New York office of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General. The Drug Enforcement Agency, though, would not comment on the case Wednesday after the charges were made public.

Sources claim that the government has a series of text messages proving that the pair were dealing with management issues at the club, that the messages were sent during hours they were on the job at the DEA, and that witnesses attest that Polos constantly flashed his badge at the club and threatened people with his position at the DEA as well as with his service firearm.

The charges also say that the two knew that the “club employed workers who were not lawfully in the United States.”

According to government filings, the two agents had earned over $600,000 from the club between 2011 and 2014.

Both were charged with one count of making false statements and could face up to five years if convicted.

Before he retired, Polos was an assistant special agent-in-charge supervising the New York Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. Glover was a telecommunications specialist.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com