If you believe what you see on television, undercover police work seems to be a glamorous occupation: pretty girls, plenty to drink, top-end cars, and lots of glitzy living. Written by one of the nation’s premier undercover operatives, RatSnakes obliterates that Hollywood myth by taking you into the real world of undercover! You will learn what it takes to volunteer and be a member of this exclusive club of RatSnakes.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE, most commonly referred to as ATF) is charged with the enforcement of our nation’s firearm, alcohol, and explosives laws. While the alcohol side of ATF is mostly regulatory in operation, the firearms and explosives agents deal with the worst of the worst criminals. Where you find guns and explosives, you find drugs—a lethal combination!
In order to root out the vilest of the criminal element, unfortunately, good men and women must enter that dirty, grimy, underground world. Obviously, this is extremely dangerous work, and it also takes a toll on the agents and their families. Undercover work puts a strain on family relations that is unmatched, even in the military.
Vincent A. Cefalu pulls back the curtain on this profane, vulgar, and violent ecosphere. In this book, you will meet some of the top undercover agents in the United States, probably even in the world. Vince shares many of their stories with you. He also shares the ineptness of some of the, as he calls them, “empty suits” within the management chain at ATF: bosses more interested in their own selfish self-promotion than the reputations or the safety of the undercover agents who do the dirty work and make the arrests.
For example, you would think an agent who has been unlawfully ordered to install a wiretap has two choices. One, they can implement the wiretap and subject themselves to the laws governing the misuse of wiretaps; or, two, they can go up the chain of command to make their superiors aware of the unlawfulness of the tap. A normal person would expect upper management to discipline the commander making the order and, at the least, shake the agent’s hand and say “thank you.” That didn’t happen! In one instance, the agent received direct discipline, a bad report was put in his file, and, worst of all, he was taken off the streets and condemned to a small office with nothing to do. This is but one sample of the corruptness of many in the middle-management levels at ATF.
Please do not interpret this as a condemnation of ATF, as the organization contains thousands of top-notch street agents and good management people. To the contrary, ATF is charged with the most difficult laws in our land to enforce. Overall, they do a good job. However, Congress has neglected its oversight duties and allowed bad practices to establish themselves.
A good example, familiar to the public, of Congress gone wrong was Operation Fast and Furious. Over 2,500 high-powered rifles were allowed to “walk” across the border from the United States into Mexico around 2009–10. This ill-devised plot was the brainchild of the management team in the Phoenix ATF office. In a series of televised hearings, Congressman Issa of California and Senator Grassley of Iowa spent many thousands, if not millions, of your tax dollars to determine who was at fault. They properly and accurately identified who was to blame. Some of these men had broken the law.
But when the TV lights were turned off and the cameras were gone, absolutely nothing happened to anyone. Those guilty were allowed to retire with their full pensions and benefits; one even secured a job as a consultant to ATF.
So what message does that send to the agency? In the country school that I come from, it says just go ahead and thumb your nose at Congress because they are not going to do anything to punish you.
In the interest of full disclosure, Vince and I are brothers-in-arms and great friends. A time long ago, back when we were called “police officers,” and the term “cops” was considered demeaning and totally inappropriate, I served as a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Later, during my tenure in the US Congress, I was chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Treasury Department. At the time, nearly 40 percent of federal law enforcement was under Treasury, including the United States Secret Service, Customs, and the Internal Revenue Service as well as the department’s enforcement wings, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Financial Crimes Network, and ATF. My tenure covered the time of the 1993 Waco, Texas, incident and the subsequent rebuilding of ATF.
When you finish reading RatSnakes you will, I hope, have an appreciation that you did not have before for the dedication to your safety of these unsung heroes of the dark alleys, smoke-filled biker bars, and rundown motels. I believe you will understand that these are people of high intelligence, many with advanced academic degrees, who prefer to fight criminals head-on rather than sit in nice, safe offices. They are people who have dedicated their lives to making a safer world for the rest of us.
Now it is time to turn the pages and get an up-close and personal view into a world that wants to destroy us, and the exceptional men and women who protect us from that fate. You are about to meet heroes that you never knew existed and who will continue their shadowy role in the world of undercover to protect you and your family.
A toast to the RatSnakes!
—Jim Lightfoot
Former six-term congressman,
US House of Representatives, from Iowa