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2024-03-28T18:26:08Z
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Gangsters Inc. sits down with FBI agent Jack Garcia Part 2
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia-part-2
2014-01-14T15:00:00.000Z
2014-01-14T15:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237027696,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237027696,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237027696?profile=original" width="520" /></a><strong>Gangsters Inc. sits down with FBI agent Jack Garcia Part 2. Read <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia">Part 1 here</a>.</strong></p>
<p>By David Amoruso</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>INFILTRATING THE AMERCAN MAFIA</strong></span></p>
<p>Italian-American <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">La Cosa Nostra</a> has been around for a long time. It has been so prominent for so many decades in fact that the FBI has labeled it Traditional Organized Crime, as in as American as apple pie. In turn members of La Cosa Nostra had their own label for the FBI: Forever Bothering Italians. The two groups have been playing cat and mouse ever since the infamous <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mob-meeting-at-apalachin-the">mob meeting at Apalachin</a> in 1957 showed the entire country that a group of Italian-American gangsters were not acting like the usual folks enjoying a barbeque. Dressed in expensive suits they fled into the countryside only to be apprehended by local police. From that moment on, the media was all over this nationwide Mafia phenomena and the FBI had to start cracking down on these racketeers.</p>
<p>In New York, five crime families make up the La Cosa Nostra landscape. The two largest are, and have always been, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino</a> families. During the 1970s and 80s, another family, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonannos</a>, was infiltrated by undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone. The operation was made famous by a book and the movie Donnie Brasco starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. It was the first time an FBI agent had gotten so close to Mafia higher ups.</p>
<p>By the 2000s, the FBI felt it was time to give Jack Garcia a try at breaking the mob. Posing as jewel thief Jack Falcone he infiltrated the crew of Gambino capo Greg DePalma. It was to be the first and only time he went undercover in the Mafia. And it was a smashing success!</p>
<p>After all was said and done 32 members and associates of the Gambino crime family were sentenced to time in prison.</p>
<p>For Jack the case was one of the biggest highlights of his long and distinguished career in the FBI. It was also the case that had the biggest impact on his life.</p>
<p>It was truly a case of life and death. Life as an undercover agent is dangerous enough with all the stone cold killers with guns and knives hanging around you for the better part of the day and night. But Garcia had some added threats to his health that originated from inside his own body.</p>
<p>His weight had always been both a blessing and a curse. Thanks to his robust figure his criminal targets had a hard time picturing him for an undercover agent, it helped Garcia earn their trust. Then again, it could have also caused him difficulties if he was caught wearing a wire. He would have been looked at as a rat first and foremost. Who would believe he was really an FBI Agent?</p>
<p>But with all the added pressures of living undercover his body had trouble with running smooth and healthy as before. Hanging with Greg DePalma made things considerably worse, Garcia says. “Every morning we’d have to meet Greg at the diner. So you park outside, walk ten steps, and sit down, then you eat like you’re going to the chair. Eggs, bacon, everyone’s eating. From there I’m going with Greg to the nursing home where his son is at, there people are stopping by with buttered rolls, pastry. Then, of course, it’s lunchtime. After that, you go back to the club where people bring more stuff to eat. Then it’s Dinner time! Not that I was complaining, don’t get me wrong, I love all of that, but I didn’t do any working out.”</p>
<p>Garcia also noticed something funny at that time. “I was looking at these mobsters and everyone was wearing fashionable name brand training suits but no one ever asked me to work out. Not once. It’s weird. The only running they do is after somebody that needs to pay them,” he laughs.</p>
<p>Still, a few days before Christmas he found himself being checked out by Greg DePalma’s mob doctor. When the doctor’s assistant asked him if he knew his heart rate was 240 beats per minute he realized there were some serious issues. Looking back, Garcia says, he should’ve decided to stop the operation that same day.</p>
<p>“My wife wanted me to resign,” he adds. “I should have. Cases come and go, what’s important is your personal health and safety. I didn’t follow my own advice. Because I should’ve walked away with my heart situation as opposed to going back. Maybe I wouldn’t have had the issues I’m having now if I had simply said fuck this case.”</p>
<p>Hindsight is 20/20, of course. At that time Garcia was involved in something that not only felt like a historic operation, he really was making history. He had gained total trust of Greg DePalma and his crew of soldiers and associates. Greg was even going to propose him for membership in the Gambino family.</p>
<p>And despite his health problems, Garcia still feels he was pulled out too fast. “In all the undercover cases I ever was involved with we aimed for the top and tried to take down as many people as we could. That’s the way we worked. In the Gambino case it was kind of frustrating because it was my first attempt at working organized crime and when you get that high up and you’re that close to Greg,” he pauses for a moment. “Greg is the type that loved to talk,” he says with a smile. “And that’s good for us! Because as he’s talking I’m recording.”</p>
<p>Garcia had his eyes on bigger fish. “Nobody suspected Jack Falcone to be anything else than Jack Falcone. We were moving forward. There were a lot of other guys that I’ve met that we really couldn’t further pursue. Guys like <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese</a> captain Rudy Handsome Rudy Santobello, Colombo captain Dennis DeLucia, and Gambino captain Wahoo Mancuso. There’s a lot of guys I met along the way that I think in due time we could’ve accomplished more. We could’ve maybe taken down other crews. Maybe have other undercover agents set up operations targeting what they needed. So that was disappointing. It would’ve been nice to further pursue just to see who we would’ve gotten. Then again who knows maybe I wouldn’t be here. You never know.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>HANGING WITH GREG DEPALMA</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237031895,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237031895?profile=original" width="600" /></a>One good thing about pulling the plug on the operation was that Garcia did not have to hang around Greg DePalma anymore. “I got to know Greg (photo above in the middle) real well. We spent a lot of time together. I never liked him. I did like to watch Greg when he was charming and nice to others so that he could get his hands in their pockets, That was brilliant. He was truly a Master at it. He was all about the business and making money.”</p>
<p>DePalma expected Garcia to be available 24/7/365. When he called, Garcia had to answer the phone or face the elderly mobster’s wrath. If he didn’t hear from Jack Falcone, DePalma’s brain would run through various scenarios of what could’ve happened. None of them were good. Had Falcone been pinched? Had he flipped? Was he killed? It meant Garcia was on call at all hours of the day and night.</p>
<p>“He’d call at 2 AM. ‘Hey Jackie boy, is that you?” Garcia says while impersonating the gruff voice of DePalma. “He said ‘Turn on TNT, they got Rio Bravo on.’ A western, he loved cowboys. I go: ‘Greg its 2 AM in the fucking morning.’ ‘Oh no it’s the best fucking movie ever’. And then he starts talking about it and I’m thinking to myself is he checking up on me or is he just a lonely guy?”</p>
<p>DePalma’s calls never came at convenient times, but one could not have occurred at a worse time. “My father died during the operation, and my mother-in-law died as soon after. While I’m at their respective wakes, I can’t tell these guys that my father and mother-in-law died. Cause they’re gonna show up! Pay their respects and bring flowers.” So Garcia didn’t tell them anything. “While I’m at these wakes with my family who do I hear on the phone? ‘Jackie boy is that you?’ What could I do? I take the phone outside, ‘Yeah Greg how you doin?’ ‘I’m alright, I’m out with some friends.’ I had to do that because I couldn’t tell him the truth for obvious reasons. Who wants him and that crew at my family’s wake and I’m gonna have my aunt, Cousin Rita and my brother-in-law sitting there and Greg’s gonna walk in and say ‘Hey, how you know Jackie boy?’ or them saying 'Do you work in the FBI too?’ I knew if I didn’t talk to him he would start wondering. Those are the sacrifices that we as undercover agents make.”</p>
<p>The sacrifices are enormous not just for the agents themselves who put their life in danger but also for their families who have to deal with a husband, wife, father, or mother who is hardly ever at home. Garcia’s wife came from a law enforcement family and supported her husband 100 percent. It made all the difference he says. “You need that support at home because without it you’re not thinking with a clear head. If you’re going out to do work and you got your wife nagging on you that’s gonna weigh on your mind. You don’t need that when you’re working undercover. I wanted to have a clean mind and my wife was very supportive of that. And that goes to a lot of the spouses they hold it together so that their man or woman goes out there knowing that everything is okay at home. They get it. I didn’t see my family sometimes for months and when I snuck home it would be for a brief moment. I’m forever thankful and I mention that in my book. I gave her the kudos that she deserves.”</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237032473,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237032473?profile=original" width="400" /></a>While the ‘friendship’ between Garcia (Photo: Garcia is on the left) and DePalma was moving along with ease, it took the undercover FBI agent a lot more time to earn the trust of others in his crew. Robert Vaccaro was the prime example of a secretive gangster who did not trust anyone. “It took me a long time to develop a relationship with him, but I think eventually I developed a better relationship with Robert than with anyone else. He was originally a Lucchese guy and somehow they switched him over to the Gambinos and they made him. He had some previous experience with the Pizza Connection case. Did some time, I think 20 years in the state penitentiary. He came out. True gangster, very quiet.”</p>
<p>As Garcia started spending more time with Vaccaro he took a genuine liking to him, though he never lost sight of what kind of individual Vaccaro really was. “After a while we would spend time going out, talk about football, he loved football, sports betting, and I saw that side of him but I also saw the bad side of him smacking around guys. But he was the kind of guy that had he not been a mobster I’d be hanging out with him right now. He was that personal of a guy. But that was the only life that he knew. His brother and son got involved with the life as well.”</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank">end</a>, Garcia says with certainty, I was not there to be their friends but to put them away. But didn’t it bother him to send a guy like Vaccaro off to prison? “Maybe a little. Because I like the guy. However, I look at it this way: he locked himself up. Because I’m just the carrier of the recorder. So you’re telling this to a recorder. It’s on you. He was also caught on other wires. And he was a very crafty and cagey guy. He never believed in cell phones. He was what you call a payphone kind of guy. He was a good opponent for lack of a better word. But in the end he hung himself up. That’s what an undercover does. I didn’t bait these guys. Robert was the one that came up to me asking if I was looking to gamble sometimes? I said 'Absolutely!' He said: 'Here, go call this number in Costa Rica. I set you up with 10,000 dollars credit line.'”</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237032685,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237032685?profile=original" width="250" /></a>And Greg? “I didn’t have a problem testifying against Greg (right) because he was the biggest prick in the world. Arrogant, mean, obnoxious, demanding, any bad adjective that you can add, that’s Greg.”</p>
<p>In a funny twist it was Greg DePalma and the medical care he offered his crew that made Garcia aware of his health problems. “Had he not sent me to go and get my heart checked I would have died. So do I owe him for that? I rationalize that sometimes. You know he did send me there but that was God’s will. And maybe I would have gotten to a doctor on my own. My wife told me numerous times to go before that.”</p>
<p>Garcia also has no doubt that had DePalma known he was an FBI agent he would’ve dragged him from the hospital to the trunk of a car and dumped him two bullets in the head. Throughout his career as an undercover Garcia never lost his edge, never strayed from the straight and narrow. He recorded every conversation he had and he made sure he worked his targets by the book. He caught them fair and square.</p>
<p>Caught and sent to prison. Greg DePalma went to trial, was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He died behind bars in 2009 and the age of 77. Robert Vaccaro received a sentence of 96 months and is back on the streets doing his thing. “All these guys I helped <a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank">bust</a> are still in the life,” Garcia says. “Because that’s the quick way of making money. First thing when you get out of prison all these guys get together and give you an envelope. To get you back on your feet.”</p>
<p>For most of these guys committing crimes is just a way of life and it’s in their DNA. Garcia vividly remembers the time he and DePalma walked through a store and the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gambino-crime-family-overview">Gambino</a> wiseguy pocketed a couple of toy dolls. “What are you doing? I told him. With his gruff voice he answers: ‘I can’t help myself.’ And that is what it’s all about. They can’t help themselves. That mentality just keeps going. They don’t know anything better. They don’t want anything better. This is what they want to do and they don’t learn their lesson. A classic example is <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/colombo-underboss-john-sonny">Sonny Franzese</a>, 91 years old, a normal senior citizen would sit and relax, this guy goes to jail. You know why? Because he can’t help himself.”</p>
<p>Ever since his true identity became known Garcia has been under a spotlight. New York tabloids were quick to report about this mysterious FBI undercover agent who weighed a ton and was able to infiltrate one of the nation’s biggest Mafia families. A <a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank">New York Times best-selling book</a> and appearances on various television shows followed. Joaquin Garcia went from undercover to becoming a recognizable figure.</p>
<p>What shocked Greg DePalma most of all about this operation was not what you would think. Garcia has a big grin when he recounts the story. “I heard Greg called someone from prison, which was recorded, telling him: ‘Can you believe this guy was a spick? Who knew, a fucking spick.’ That was all he said.” Other FBI Intelligence came in noting how Falcone’s name had been put on the list by DePlama.</p>
<p>Garcia also got a compliment from some of the guys who he’d met as jewel thief Jack Falcone. “Two guys in the mob, low level associates, I ran into them in a bar and one of them said ‘Hey listen no hard feelings. I saw you on 60 Minutes, good for you.’</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">RETIREMENT</span></strong></p>
<p>Today, Jack Garcia is a retired FBI agent. His daughter was one of the reasons he left. He didn’t want to be an absent father. He still testifies at mob trials whenever they need him to. Like last month at the trial of the Philadelphia mob. He works as a consultant for <a href="http://pathfinderci.com/" target="_blank">Pathfinders Consultancy International</a>, he teaches other undercover agents, and has speaking engagements all over the world. And he is there if any undercover operatives need any support, someone to talk to about their job, discuss their fears and provide them with any help that they might need.</p>
<p>His health is his first priority, though. “I need to fix that. I recognize that I’ve let myself go. And I have to get my hands around it now. I’ve been gone from the bureau since 2006 so I should’ve done it by now. But I’ve had some great successes and then boom I went off the road again.”</p>
<p>At 61, Garcia still looks young and vibrant. “I feel 90,” he is quick to add. Where other undercover agents might hit the bottle when they try to manage the stress, Garcia went for the food. “I’ve got a good doctor and I started slowly walking myself back in shape. I just hope it stays. I’ve got about two hundreds of pounds to lose. In a whole year you are affected by many highs and lows, personal issues, frustrations, now I don’t want to make excuses because I’m the guy who shoveled the food down my mouth,” he jokes.</p>
<p>While he is keeping himself busy he does miss his old job. “I miss not the life,” he points out. “I miss the adrenaline rush. Look I’m not looking for fame or glory. I just did my job. I was fortunate to get into the FBI. I was the second Cuban-born FBI agent in FBI history. I was lucky that I was surrounded by some really amazing and competent people. And was able to work cases with their help. I’m grateful for that. It was my goal to make the world a little bit safer for mankind.”</p>
<p>Garcia wanted to become an FBI agent after seeing the movie <a href="http://amzn.to/1aZEy0V" target="_blank">Serpico</a>. After the movie <a href="http://amzn.to/14yAt3w" target="_blank">Donnie Brasco</a> was released plenty of fresh recruits joined the FBI with similar dreams. Jack Garcia could follow in <a href="http://amzn.to/1aZEy0V" target="_blank">Serpico</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/12XNbZ8" target="_blank">Pistone</a>’s footsteps as Hollywood has plans of turning his book into a motion picture. The past six years, Garcia has been working with director Steven Soderbergh and actor Benicio Del Toro (who will take on the role of Garcia). Things are moving slowly, but that’s Hollywood. Garcia: "This will be the year that I will decide to stay or shop it around to another studio."</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>UNDERWORLD PAYBACK</strong></span></p>
<p>After his role as undercover agent became known, the FBI got word about the mob putting out a contract on him. The news did not faze Garcia. “They’re not going to come after me. Don’t get me wrong . I’m not naïve. I don’t go back to the places where I used to go. I also know there’s those groupie guys, wannabes , some guys that want to make a name for themselves who would easily do it on their own non sanctioned you never know.” Garcia adds that mobsters know that the reign of terror will fall down on them if they hit an agent. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">Colombian and Mexican Cartels</a> do worry him. They have a reputation for having no problems killing members of law enforcement.</p>
<p>Despite all of that Garcia is not in hiding. He lives out in the open. It’s important, he says. “What is the message you’re sending to the public? ‘Wait a minute you want me to testify against the mob? But your own FBI agent is hiding? What are you crazy? Who would do that?’ So I said I’m coming forward and I did it with no regrets.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>For <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia">Part 1</a> of this interview, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia">click here</a>.</strong></span></p>
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Gangsters Inc. sits down with FBI agent Jack Garcia
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia
2014-01-14T15:00:00.000Z
2014-01-14T15:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237027696,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237027696?profile=original" width="520" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Gangsters Inc. is proud to present our interview with former undercover FBI agent Joaquin “Jack” Garcia. Some of you may know him as Jack Falcone, a jewel thief from Florida, and if you actually met Falcone then chances are you spent some time in the can. Posing as this jewel thief Garcia managed to infiltrate the Gambino crime family, almost become a made guy, and send 32 mobsters to prison.</p>
<p>But that is only part of the story. Now, Jack Garcia sits down with Gangsters Inc. to tell us about everything else. From his days as an FBI rookie to him becoming one of the most successful undercover agents the United States ever produced. He’ll give his views on the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mob">Mafia</a> and organized crime, drug cartels, his book and movie deals, and what he’s up to now. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Just a few minutes after Garcia sits down for our interview, it becomes clear how he managed to win the trust of so many hardened criminals. With his fast wit, smart humor (at times at his own expense), and intelligent opinions you can’t help but like the guy. With his enormous physique he also casts a big shadow similar to Paul Sorvino’s character in Goodfellas: “Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.”</p>
<p>But there was one essential ingredient I missed that helped pave the way for his undercover success: The greed of the criminal.</p>
<p>“It’s what surprised me the most,” Garcia tells me. “How greedy they are. Criminals are all about making that fast buck. And the thought of getting a conventional job and working hard like all of us is something they don’t understand. It’s all about the money. And that’s their downfall too.”</p>
<p>Because as an undercover agent Garcia was always eager to help criminals find what it was they were looking for. Be it drugs, a way to launder money, a couple nice Rolex watches, some jewels maybe? Once their eyes were blinking dollar signs, he knew he had the hook in. Garcia: “Greed cannot be controlled and they start overlooking a lot.” He was always prepared for any questions, but in the end, gangsters chose to believe in their moneymaker. Even if he was too good to be true.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>FBI ROOKIE</strong></span></p>
<p>Garcia joined the <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/" target="_blank">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> in 1980. After he saw the movie <a href="http://amzn.to/1aZEy0V" target="_blank">Serpico</a>, in which Al Pacino plays an undercover cop battling police corruption, he was sold. Rather than joining the New York Police Department he aimed for the stars and decided to apply “for the best agency in the world.” In doing so he became the second Cuban-born FBI agent in its history.</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237028080,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237028080?profile=original" width="380" /></a>“When I got into Quantico (photo shows a young Garcia in his early FBI days), you kinda start drinking the Kool-Aid. You get into the whole G-Man thing. And I wanted to do the basic FBI stuff which was bank robberies and fugitives. But the needs of the Bureau outweigh your own, which means they can place you anywhere to work, in any city, on any criminal violation. A lot of people think it’s like join the army and be all that you can be. I’ve talked to kids in colleges who tell me things like ‘I’m gonna get my bachelor’s degree in psychology and I’m gonna join the behavioral science unit.’ It doesn’t work that way. Same with people who say they’ll become a SWAT teams guy, or go undercover. It doesn’t work like that,” he explains. “Each division, I believe there are 59, has its areas to enforce. They decide as to what investigative crime they will be focusing on based on that particular area.”</p>
<p>A good first impression and a bit of luck are extremely important when it comes to ending up in a nice place at the FBI. When people speak highly of you, you are more likely to get in on interesting cases. But that decision still ultimately lies with the boss who decides which agent gets which assignment. Garcia: “You may have a desire to work organized crime but if you don’t have the right network or boss that assigns you then you may never go there.”</p>
<p>For Garcia his lucky break came when he was approached by another agent to help out on a case dealing with national security – Which he still can’t talk about. It was his first taste at undercover work and he loved it.</p>
<p>“I thought: this is interesting! You are meeting with bad guys, you’re extracting information, you’re acting, you’re telling them certain things and they’re believing who you are claiming to be,” Garcia remembers. “So when I finished that operation I started volunteering for undercover work. The beautiful thing that happened was, it’s all about timing, I got into the Bureau in 1980 in 1984 we started working narcotics. Before that was all done by the <a href="http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.shtml" target="_blank">DEA</a>. I’m a fluent Spanish speaker, so I was a natural, there weren’t that many like me, since then the Bureau has changed so it now mirrors the demographic of our society but in the old days, they were very limited as far as minorities that could work undercover.”</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>I WAS BORN AN UNDERCOVER</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/19DpkUL" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237027900,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237027900?profile=original" width="280" /></a>Garcia would spend a total of 24 of his 26 years as an FBI agent working over 100 undercover cases. Though undercover work itself is thrilling, getting to that point is not what it’s made out to be. “You go through the process of doing the psychological exam, you make sure whether you have the capabilities, and you get your supervisor to approve you going to the school. Now when I went through, I went to the second FBI Undercover school. Nowadays they apply for the program and they go through two weeks of intensive training. In fact that program is so good that even other countries come and participate in it.”</p>
<p>During the course the majority of people, believe it or not, are sent home. “They just don’t have what it takes,” Garcia adds. “They are sent home because they are associating with the particular subject group or maybe they’re not handling themselves appropriately, maybe they get scared in certain scenarios. These scenarios we come up with during training are very lifelike. And a lot of people can’t handle it and you want to weed them out. because the last thing you want is to have somebody go undercover and not make it home that night.”</p>
<p>It may sound cliché but Garcia has seen and experienced it: “You can’t make an undercover,” he says. “It’s one of the things I’ve always said against the training course. You are really born an undercover. You gotta be a person who likes to bullshit, be a good talker, be engaging, comfortable in all settings and surroundings, doesn’t show his fear. All undercover agents have fear. I had fears during all the cases I worked. The thing is you don’t show that fear. You’re around a criminal element that at any given time could do some harm to you. You have to control your fear and not let them know that you are frightened of them. Part of it is some of these people think that by going to this school they are going to come out an undercover, well they’re mistaken. You have to be able to get along, talk fast, think quick, those are the important traits to have. Nothing the school can teach you, they will show you the parameters of working undercover, the do’s, don’ts, be careful here, who to call, but as far as creating an undercover by no means, you go into that school an undercover already.”</p>
<p>What follows next is the school of hard knocks. Going out onto the streets and learning it the hard way. Garcia: “You slowly start getting better. Like with everything else you start out small and learn from your mistakes.” As he learned and grew, Garcia’s undercover assignment started becoming more serious and more difficult. The smart members of organized crime needed help with a variety of illegal activities and against the skilled and highly trained undercover operator Jack Garcia their smarts didn’t stand a chance.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>LAUNDERING DRUG MONEY FOR CARTELS</strong></span></p>
<p>Wait, did I write ‘Didn’t stand a chance’? Maybe it wasn’t exactly such an easy win for the FBI and Garcia. The Cartels were a tough nut to crack, he says. “The amazing thing I find about the Cartels, they’re more sophisticated. One of the things about working around <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">mobsters</a> is you’ll be following a mobster with surveillance. When you lose that mobster you could find him within an hour. Where is he gonna be? At his gambling parlors that he goes to, or their <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/another-mob-social-club-bites">social club</a> that he goes to, his goomar’s house, his mother’s house, so you’ll find the guy. They also know they’re being tailed. A lot of those mob guys will come over to the guys doing the surveillance and try to be cute: ‘Hey now I’m going over there. You wanna cup of coffee?’</p>
<p>With members of a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">drug Cartel</a> things are not so easy. “When they pick up a tail, that very next day they pack up their bags and transfer to the west coast. You never see this guy again. So when we were working narcotics especially with a sophisticated Cartel group we were really very careful. I opted sometimes to not even tail these guys because if they pick it up, especially after I do a money laundering transaction or dope transaction with them.”</p>
<p>“Cartels are also very compartmentalized. It isn’t like everybody knows who everybody is. If you take down a guy with dope and you’re trying to offer him a deal to cooperate he can’t give you anything. He says ‘Look I got a page, that page told me to call to this number, I call that number and a guy tells me to meet him on the corner of whatever at three o’ clock, I was there, he gave me the keys of a car, I put the stuff in it came back, gave him the keys back. Who is it? I don’t know.’ He doesn’t ask. Because if he’s asking that gets back to the Cartel who will ask him ‘Why you asking? You don’t need to know that.’ Everything is set. Because they have these compartments that’s as high as you go. You’re not moving up the ladder like you’re supposed to do. There is no such thing as ‘I want to meet your boss.’ Sometimes if you launder enough money and you work a wiretap you identify the boss which is good but most of the bosses are in Colombia or Mexico so they are difficult to get to. You have to catch them through money, wiretaps, as opposed to any undercover meet.”</p>
<p>Working narcotics was quite the trip for Garcia. It was during this time that he also realized that despite the Bureau’s best efforts in busting drug dealers the media wasn’t that interested. “That’s the fascinating thing about the mob and organized crime,” Garcia begins. “I’ve been working narcotics since the FBI got into it in 1984. I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with some of the finest men and women in law enforcement and we were really rocking and rolling taking down a lot of these drug criminals. We had done a lot of seizures, I’m talking boatloads and ton loads of drugs, a lot of money seizures where we really hurt them in their pockets. None to very few of them make the newspapers. For some reason it’s not glamorized. We took down five thousand kilos in New York and that never even made the newspapers. But if you lock up a mobster with one kilo you got newspaper fodder for weeks and weeks.”</p>
<p>The good ol’ <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">American Mafia</a>. The media darling and Public Favorite Number One. After a slow start, the FBI has had huge successes in breaking down the mob’s influence. For decades Italian-American Mafia families ruled organized crime in many major U.S. cities. Eventually extending that influence into the legitimate world. “It’s something distorted but I do understand why the world romanticizes organized crime, especially Cosa Nostra,” Garcia admits. “It’s the only one of the few criminal groups that actually infiltrated all of legitimate America. They’ve gotten into the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-mafia-and-labor-racketeering">unions</a>, corrupted police departments, corrupted politicians , construction, because of that they are very influential. They’re looked at as a different breed.”</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangsters-inc-sits-down-with-fbi-agent-jack-garcia-part-2">Click here to read Part 2</a> of Gangsters Inc.'s interview with Jack Garcia in which he talks about infiltrating the Gambino crime family, what he's up to now, and his movie deal.</strong></p>
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