Confessions of an Undercover Agent: Adventures, Close Calls, and the Toll of a Double Life

by Charlie Spillers

Overview

This true story of an ex-Marine who fought crime as an undercover cop, a narcotics agent, and finally a federal prosecutor spans a decade of crime fighting and narrow escapes. Charlie Spillers dealt with a remarkable variety of career criminals, including heroin traffickers, safecrackers, burglars, auto thieves, and members of Mafia and Mexican drug smuggling operations. In this riveting tale, the author recounts fascinating experiences and the creative methods he used to succeed and survive in a difficult and sometimes extremely dangerous underworld life.

As a young officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, ex-Marine Charlie Spillers first went undercover to infiltrate criminal groups to gather intelligence. Working alone and often unarmed, he constantly attempted to walk the thin line between triumph and disaster. When on the hunt, his closest associates were safecrackers, prostitutes, and burglars. His abilities propelled him into years of undercover work inside drug trafficking rings. But the longer he worked, the greater the risks. His final and perhaps most significant action in Baton Rouge was leading a battle against corruption in the police department itself.

After Baton Rouge, he joined the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and for the next five years continued working undercover, from the Gulf Coast to Memphis; and from New Orleans to Houston, Texas. He capped off a unique career by becoming a federal prosecutor and the justice attaché for Iraq. In this book, he shares his most intriguing exploits and exciting undercover stings, putting readers in the middle of the action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496805218
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	03/24/2016
Series:	Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	953,856
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Charlie Spillers, a former Marine and narcotics agent, was an assistant US attorney for twenty-three years, which included serving three tours in Iraq for the Department of Justice as the justice attaché for Iraq and as an attorney-advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal. He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Preface xi

My Path to an Undercover Life 3

Cajun Roots 3

The Marines 5

Crisis: To the Dominican Republic 8

To Vietnam 10

"Grasshoppers" 11

Part I Baton Rouge Police Department 15

1 Intelligence 17

The Beginning 17

Randy the Safecracker 18

Working Girls and Shopping 36

2 Narcotics 39

Capital Area Narcotics Unit (CANU) 39

Danger from Both Sides 40

Angel Dust and Jail: Just another Workday 43

Who Is He? Is He Me? 49

It Takes One to Know One 52

Risky Business 53

Seconds Count 56

Is This Work Dangerous? Kill Who? 58

Close Encounters with Carl, the Bomb Maker 60

Mike, Meet Charlie 67

Guatemalan Intelligence El Commandante Calls BRPD 70

"Don't I Know You?" 72

Tight Spot 76

Roadside Ballet 78

Too Close to Home 83

Not a Normal Life 89

The Battle for the Baton Rouge Police Department and a Price to Pay 91

Grady Partin, the Head of the Teamsters, and "Marshal Matt Dillon" 100

Part II Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) 103

3 Jackson 105

Introduction to the MBN 105

Caught in a Lie 106

New Orleans Strip Clubs and Careful Dealers 110

4 Natchez, McComb, and Vicksburg 114

It's Always Best to Keep Your Gun Loaded-Except When It's Not 114

The Right Words 121

The Gulf Stream 123

5 Mississippi Gulf Coast Heroin Operation 126

A Cabdriver in Sewer City 126

Undercover Buys Are Routine-Except When They're Not 127

Selling Stolen Goods Has Side Benefits 129

Out of Buy Money: Taking "Me" with Me 131

6 MBN Intelligence 140

MBN Intelligence 140

The Strip Club Bartender 142

7 North Mississippi 146

Undercover Operations 146

Sara: The Ambush and the "Arizona Territory" 151

Infiltrating Auto-Theft Rings 158

Death of an Agent 186

In the Arena: Demanding, Dangerous Work 188

My Last Undercover: Infiltrating Mafia and Mexican Drug-Smuggling Operations 201

Epilogue 233

Author's Note 236

Acknowledgments 237

Index 239

Editorial Reviews

"Confessions of an Undercover Agent stands on the author's skill as an observer, his remarkable memory, and his ear for the conversation of criminals, told in long scenes with plenty of colorful dialogue. In a time when the police are getting a bad rap, he's the kind of guy you want on the side of the law. May his exploits live on in the canon of great Mississippi true-crime literature."

—Jamie Kornegay, owner of Greenwood's Turnrow Book Co. and author of the acclaimed novel Soil; from his review in The Clarion-Ledger, April 3, 2016




"Charlie Spillers is a natural-born storyteller with one hell of a story to tell. This is the real lowdown on southern crime from a man who saw it from the inside. After reading the book, I don't know if Spillers was brave or just plain crazy. But I loved it. A great read."

—Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Forsaken and The Redeemers




"Confessions of an Undercover Agent is a dynamic, compelling, hilarious memoir by a talented new writer. Charlie Spillers tells fascinating adventure stories unequalled in any other modern memoir I've read. Spillers delivers with brilliant but painful introspection what living a double life of adventurous deception does to your own character. He shows us how the endless adrenaline rushes of risking your life—and that of your family—change you."

—John Hailman, author of From Midnight to Guntown: True Crime Stories from a Federal Prosecutor in Mississippi and Return to Guntown: Classic Trials of the Outlaws and Rogues of Faulkner Country




"Confessions of an Undercover Agent is one of those real-life books you just can't put down. It is factual yet exciting. It defines all the principles of undercover work and highlights the dangers faced by our brave men and women who perform undercover duties every day. Confessions will put the reader into the very mindset of an undercover officer. If you have never worked undercover, your heart rate will increase and your blood pressure will rise by reading and imagining being in these situations. It will be mandatory reading for all future undercover class students at the Department of Defense's Regional Counterdrug Training Academy."

—Tim Rutledge, director of training at the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy (RCTA)

From the Publisher