There’s no question that the history of Las Vegas is tied to the mob, the outfit, the mafia—organized crime.
That history was part of the impetus to create the Mob Museum in the city’s urban core a dozen years ago.
And as time passes, more stories about the mob’s criminal activity and influence in this country come to light. In turn, the Museum is launching a podcast called “Inside the Life.”
It’s advertised as a podcast with tales about the mob, outlaw motorcycle gangs, drug cartels, law enforcement and more from, quote, “the people who lived the life.”
It’s hosted by former undercover agents Dutch McAlpin and Giovanni Rocco, who has also written a book, “Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos.”
Without giving away their current locations, the two said they started their undercover careers on the East Coast and the Midwest. Eventually, they moved to federal agencies and worked across the country and sometimes overseas.
McAlpin said his motivation for doing undercover work was the excitement of it. “And I’ve always wanted to know what it’d be like to be inside the world, the criminal world, you know?”
Rocco was a third-generation officer, who grew up in a house not far from a “chop shop”—a place where stolen cars are broken down for parts to be resold.
“My dad would send us down there on our bicycles and … we’d jot down some license plates and bring it back to my dad,” he said. “Then, as I became a police officer, I had that burning desire to want to do more and more of that kind of work, investigative-wise.”
The two men worked decades undercover. And the stress that people see depicted in movies like “The Departed,” is real.
“It’s very, very draining,” Rocco said. “An emotional rollercoaster for you … portraying yourself not to be who you truly are. And at the end of the day, if we do have families and loved ones to go back home to, to become a person and a law enforcement officer we are sworn to be. So it can get dicey.”
The two also noticed changes in themselves and how they viewed the people they were targeting and their families.
“Early in my career, I think I was fairly hard nosed and … you know, they committed the crime, they should do the time,” McAlpin said. “But as I matured … I really did start to feel impacted to see a young person locked up for 20 years in prison, or any person just taken out of their family, taken out of their living environment … and you start to see the impact. There’s no protocol for that family to earn income. There’s no way for them to pick up where they left off. It’s literally: yesterday they were here, today they’re gone.”
Rocco said he would advocate for some suspects “who might not have been as bad as (police) thought.”
As for their podcast, McAlpin said everyone they talked to was interesting. He mentioned Javier Peña, a retired undercover agent who helped bring down cartel leader, Pablo Escobar.
Rocco said he loved talking to Lew Rice Jr., agent who sat with Frank Lucas—portrayed by Denzel Washington in the movie, “American Gangster” – after Lucas’ arrest.
These days, the two say they don’t live in fear of someone seeking revenge for what they did undercover.
“I truly, truly tried to live by integrity,” McAlpin said. “I never committed entrapment. I never put evidence on somebody. I never lied. And I think it allows me to walk with a more clear conscience and not spend time looking over my shoulder.”
So what’s it take to do undercover, to be in an environment where, McAlpin noted, “people get whacked, killed, get assaulted, get hurt in the name of pride or street cred”?
“It takes emotional intelligence,” Rocco said. “Emotional intelligence and awareness … You have to stay true to yourself, stay focused…and periodically, you have to unplug and walk away for a bit.”
“And I think you’ve got to be able to kind of swallow fear, not be overwhelmed with it,” McAlpin added. “You’ve got to be fluid and flexible and creative all the time.”
Guests: Dutch McAlpin and Giovanni Rocco, hosts, "Inside the Life" and authors
