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Undercover: the Secret Lives of a Federal Agent
Details the twenty-three-year career of undercover narcotics agent Michael Levine, focusing on his mastery of disguise and subterfuge and on his unmatched successes
- GenresNonfiction
338 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 10, 2009
[Reviewed in 2004.:]
Lately, I've been into the federal law enforcement genre (is there even such a thing?), particularly the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). I read Dead on Delivery a while back and I found that the library had this book as well.
I think I loved this book starting on page 1. Just to give you a small taste of it, let me list some of the quotes at the beginning of the chapters:
* "Oh boy, oh boy, am I in fucking trouble."
* "Is there someone up there controlling this shit?"
* ". . . the only Jewish Nazi in America."
Daniel Goddard chronicles the life of Michael Levine, who, at the point the book was written, had been with the DEA for 23 years. He worked as an undercover agent, doing the dirtiest of deeds. In Levine's own words, "Undercovers are looked on with suspicion. I don't care what agency you work for, your bosses are going to think you're a hotshot. A cowboy. No matter how good you are. No matter how professional you are. To them you're just one step above the scum you're working on."
Levine dealt with that throughout his career, since he was the best of the best. He himself, as well as the group he supervised, managed to make several landmark cases, some of them by the book. Cases that would be looked up in the future as models of how a sting operation should go, for example.
I love the book's format. What the author did was to set it during one of the seminars that Levine gave to other law enforcement officials about undercover work. That way, it kept moving from present to past, in a very easy-to-understand fashion.
And the book is chock full of quotes! The things Levine says, you could frame on your wall. Let me end with the quote lifted from the back cover of the book:
"People who do drugs carry the rottenest disease that ever hit the human race. Worse than cancer. Worse than AIDS. Don't even think about the ruined lives. Don't even try to imagine the human agony involved. Forget that drug users are selling out the country, piece by piece. Just think of the number of deaths. The ODs. The murders. The victims of drug-related accidents and crimes. The suicides. The people who slowly poison their brains and bodies and die before their time. Add up all that and you've got to think of wartime casualty lists to get a handle on the scale of this disease.
"And you know what the real tragedy is? The tragedy is you've got the cure in your hands. It's simple. Just stop buying it. Stop buying it and you'll put me out of a job. Please! You can do it."
[This was during a PTA meeting, where he butted heads with 2 parents about the drug issue. I didn't necessarily agree with some of his opinions, but I love how he broke it down for them.:]
Lately, I've been into the federal law enforcement genre (is there even such a thing?), particularly the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). I read Dead on Delivery a while back and I found that the library had this book as well.
I think I loved this book starting on page 1. Just to give you a small taste of it, let me list some of the quotes at the beginning of the chapters:
* "Oh boy, oh boy, am I in fucking trouble."
* "Is there someone up there controlling this shit?"
* ". . . the only Jewish Nazi in America."
Daniel Goddard chronicles the life of Michael Levine, who, at the point the book was written, had been with the DEA for 23 years. He worked as an undercover agent, doing the dirtiest of deeds. In Levine's own words, "Undercovers are looked on with suspicion. I don't care what agency you work for, your bosses are going to think you're a hotshot. A cowboy. No matter how good you are. No matter how professional you are. To them you're just one step above the scum you're working on."
Levine dealt with that throughout his career, since he was the best of the best. He himself, as well as the group he supervised, managed to make several landmark cases, some of them by the book. Cases that would be looked up in the future as models of how a sting operation should go, for example.
I love the book's format. What the author did was to set it during one of the seminars that Levine gave to other law enforcement officials about undercover work. That way, it kept moving from present to past, in a very easy-to-understand fashion.
And the book is chock full of quotes! The things Levine says, you could frame on your wall. Let me end with the quote lifted from the back cover of the book:
"People who do drugs carry the rottenest disease that ever hit the human race. Worse than cancer. Worse than AIDS. Don't even think about the ruined lives. Don't even try to imagine the human agony involved. Forget that drug users are selling out the country, piece by piece. Just think of the number of deaths. The ODs. The murders. The victims of drug-related accidents and crimes. The suicides. The people who slowly poison their brains and bodies and die before their time. Add up all that and you've got to think of wartime casualty lists to get a handle on the scale of this disease.
"And you know what the real tragedy is? The tragedy is you've got the cure in your hands. It's simple. Just stop buying it. Stop buying it and you'll put me out of a job. Please! You can do it."
[This was during a PTA meeting, where he butted heads with 2 parents about the drug issue. I didn't necessarily agree with some of his opinions, but I love how he broke it down for them.:]
Displaying 1 of 1 review