Oct 14, 2008 11:57 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: Undercover FBI Agent Speaks
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Jack Garcia might look like a mobster, but for years, the Cuban-born man was an undercover FBI agent.
CBS
Jack Garcia has been described as the best undercover agent the FBI has ever had, a man who could juggle identities and characters with the ease of a Hollywood star.
"But unlike an actor that gets several takes," Garcia tells me, "we get one take. Make one mistake you can wind up in the river dead, you can wind up in the back of a car."
The fact that Garcia was never forced into the trunk of a sedan wasn't from a lack of trying. Garcia spent 24 of his 26 years in the FBI working undercover, playing a central role in a hundred different operations.
"I've been Big Manny, I've been Big Tony, I've been Big Frankie," Garcia says, ticking off his various covers on each of his fingers. "I've been Big Jack of course."
He has worked undercover in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Atlantic City. He has also worked some of the biggest cases in South Florida. His work led to the arrest of the four corrupt Hollywood cops last year, the arrest of two Broward Sheriff's deputies this year on corruption charges, and the arrest last month of a husband who hired Jack – thinking he was a hit man – to kill his wife's lover in Broward. He is also responsible for helping put away the biggest drug smugglers in South Florida history.
"When you are able to look somebody in the eye, when you are working undercover, a bad guy that you know to be a murderer, you know him to be a hit man, you know him to be a dope dealer, a hardcore gangster or criminal," he says. "And you look at him and you hold your drink and you see that your hand doesn't shake and you look in his eyes and he is more worried about you, about who he thinks you may be, there is a thrill to that Jim."
Indeed the Cuban-born agent was so convincing as a Sicilian that he was on the verge of formally becoming a made guy in the Gambino crime family when the case came to an end with the arrest of 32 mobsters.
"I'm the second law enforcement ever to be proposed for membership in La Casa Nostra," Garcia said.
But at the same time he was dismantling the Gambino crime family in New York, Garcia was regularly flying to South Florida setting up a crooked ring of Hollywood cops. South Florida has always held a special place for Garcia. He first came here in 1961 when his family fled Havana. Garcia was nine years old then and although his family quickly moved to the Bronx, he's been regularly coming back to do what he does best.
In fact, I first saw Garcia in 1999 when he testified in one of the biggest cases in South Florida.
The case involved Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta, two high school drop outs who went on to become drug kingpins in the Eighties. Both were acquitted of charges they had smuggled 75 tons of cocaine into the United States. It was the biggest drug case ever lost in the history of the Justice Department and the reason the feds lost was simple: Falcon and Magluta had bribed at least three of the jurors, including the foreman, Miguel Moya.
FBI Agent Mario Tarichi was in charge of the Moya investigation and called Jack Garcia in to help.
"We wanted to have an undercover agent pose as somebody from the Willy and Sal organization," Tarichi recalled. "So I immediately thought of Jack Garcia."
The plan was simple: Have Garcia approach Moya, introduce himself as being a representative from Falcon and Magluta, and tell Moya he was being investigated by the feds and needed help. With a little luck, Moya would crack and admit what he did with the bribe money.
The confrontation took place in the parking lot of Miami International Airport, where Moya worked. Garcia, who is 6 foot 4 and close to 400 pounds, was an intimidating figure and although he did not get an complete confession, Garcia did get Moya to admit just enough to lead to his indictment.
After two trials, Moya was convicted. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Garcia says he is amazed Moya never cooperated.
"This guy was offered every opportunity to cooperate," Garcia recalls. "I mean I was just shocked he didn't cut a deal. He was dead to right."
Going after corruption within one of South Florida's own police departments was one of Garcia's most recent feats.
He recalls one of his first meetings with Hollywood police officer Kevin Companion. It was at Mama Mia's Italian Restaurant.
"So we are sitting there," he recalls, "and I told him, `Hey look, it may get a little animated with this guy because I may straighten him out, you just watch me because I'm new in town.' He said, `Don't worry about it Jackie, I got you covered.'"
Garcia, was playing the role of a capo in the Gambino crime family out of New York. He hired Companion to show up to the restaurant, in uniform, and provide security while Garcia collected money from a drug deal.
Just as the deal was about to go down, in walked the Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry. Garcia was concerned because here he was, looking like a classic Italian mobster – with slicked back hair, a three carat diamond pinkie ring – and he felt sure the police chief might wonder why his officer was sitting with such a character.
"I said, `Kevin, let's just abort this situation," Garcia says. "`You can't have your boss here,' and he said, `Don't worry about it.'"
Sure enough, the chief walked over, side hello to Companion and went on to his own table. A few minutes later the drug dealer – who of course was another undercover FBI agent – walked in and sat at the bar. Garcia got up, went over to him, and began to make a scene, banging on the bar, standing over the doper, and talking in a loud voice. The dealer then reached in his pocked, pulled out a thick envelope stuffed with cash and handed it to Garcia. Garcia then went back to Companion's table.
The police chief sat off to the side oblivious to what had just happened.
Over the next 18 months Companion recruited three other crooked Hollywood cops to help Garcia transport stolen merchandise to New York and Atlantic City; they provided security for a crooked poker game in Hollywood, and took the ultimate step of escorting a shipment of ten kilos of heroin.
The four Hollywood cops – Companion, Jeffry Courtney, Thomas Simcox and Stephen Harrison – were arrested last in year in one of the worst police scandals in South Florida in years. For the first time the man who was the key undercover officer in that case is speaking.
Garcia tells CBS4 News that he was working to uncover more crooked Hollywood cops when the investigation came to a premature conclusion. Garcia had arrived back in South Florida and was scheduled to meet with another pair of crooked cops recruited by Companion, when Companion suddenly stopped returning Garcia's phone calls. A few days later, Garcia discovered Companion and Courtney, has abruptly retired from the department.
Obviously word of the investigation had leaked and Garcia knew exactly who was responsible. As a courtesy, Chief Scarberry had been recently briefed by federal officials.
"He was told specifically, do not mention this to anyone, this is a sensitive investigation," Garcia says, "there are undercovers' lives out there."
But Scarberry told the mayor, the city manager and some of his commanders. As a direct result of Scarberry's actions, word spread through the department and the crooked cops were tipped off.
Scarberry, who has since resigned, has always defended his actions, saying he believed the investigation was essentially over and he felt obligated to tell his bosses. But Garcia doesn't accept the chief's excuses and is still angry.
"I was disgusted, I was betrayed," Garcia said. "The other undercovers and I were totally shocked that somebody would put our lives in danger. What if these guys would have taken us for a ride and put two in the back of [our] head."
Even though he's now hailed as the best undercover agent in the history of the FBI, he almost didn't get hired by the bureau.
"When I came in 1980 and even when I made an application to the FBI back in 1976 there were really no Cuban FBI agents," offers Jack Garcia. "The FBI back at that time was skeptical of hiring Cuban born agents, understandably so, because of their fear that there were possible mole infiltrations by the Cuban government."
Garcia and his family fled Cuba in 1961, when Garcia was nine years old. After a brief stay in Miami, the family moved to the Bronx.
When he first applied to the bureau in 1976, he never heard back from the FBI. Then one day he saw a commercial on Spanish language TV saying the FBI needed Spanish speaking agents. Confused why he was never contacted, he called the bureau and discovered the reason his application was never processed was because he had never become a US citizen.
Like so many Cubans before him, he said he had always thought of himself as an American kid, but had just never applied for citizenship. The next day he began the process and re-applied, but it still took him several years to get in.
Why did he become an agent?
Some might think it was out of a sense of patriotic fervor to his adoptive country, but really the motivation was far simpler.
"When I was in college I saw the movie Serpico and that sealed the fate for me," Garcia says. "I saw that and I loved the fact that this cool cop with the long hair and the beard with the earring named Paco could go behind the scenes and pose among the criminal element and work so successfully in it."
And successful he was. Over the past two decades, he played a key role in at least 100 undercover operations in Boston, New York, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Puerto Rico and here in South Florida. He dealt with some of the most violent and ruthless criminals in the country.
Was he ever scared?
"If I told you I was never scared then you would know I'd be lying," he explains. "Every undercover is scared, you just can't let that fear show. But not for one moment do I trust the individual that I'm with. I know what he is capable of doing. I know he has a propensity for violence and I watch myself, but I never let that fear be shown."
So secretive was his world that none of his neighbors even knew he was an FBI agent.
"So I would tell a neighbor I was in construction, another guy I was in real estate, by the time it got around the neighborhood, they thought I was this big bean shooter," he says. 'They would see me I different cars. One day I was in an Escalade, a Navigator, a Mercedes, and they would say, 'Who is this guy?'"
It even confused his eight-year-old daughter.
"Here I am making reservations one day in the name of Jack Falcone, then I'm making it in the name of Joey Bag Of Doughnuts, then I'm making it in Vinnie Pots And Pans, whatever name I would use," he says. "My daughter would be listening and one day this little girl said to me, Hey daddy, what is your name? And I said, What do you mean? Well you are always telling people a different name. What is your name daddy? I said, 'You don't have to worry about that baby, because I will always be daddy to you.'"
Garcia is now retired from the bureau, working for a private investigative company. He just published a book, "Making Jack Falcone."
I asked him if he was going to be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.
"Yeah, I guess that is part of the price that you pay as an undercover, you got to look over your shoulder," he says. "But I got to tell you one thing, I'm not a tough guy or anything like that, but if you are going to come after me be ready because I'm going to be coming back at you."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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