by mike68 » Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:47 am
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/ ... story.html
Interesting stuff
Matthew Guglielmetti was serving as a union steward for Laborers Local 271, but was better known as a feared captain in the Patriarca crime family in Providence. Michael McGowan had met wise-guys like him before. An undercover FBI agent, McGowan had infiltrated Rhode Island’s corrupt construction and union communities, posing as a parking magnate from the Midwest. And there they were together, in 2001, at the Castaways seafood restaurant in Tampa, discussing business over fish and lobster. McGowan was soliciting the Mafia’s help in a concocted dispute with organized crime figures in Florida over a strip club. “In two hours, I’ve got to pass this test,” McGowan recalled thinking. The Guglielmetti meeting was a pivotal opportunity in what would become a lengthy undercover career, one McGowan recently retired from after 31 years with the bureau. His name is not well known — that’s the point — but in recent years, he’s had a hand in every major undercover case in the Boston area. “I shouldn’t be here,” Guglielmetti told McGowan at their dinner meeting. “There’s the door, get up and go,” McGowan, playing the role of ruthless businessman, recalled telling him. Guglielmetti stayed. They had dinner. They discussed McGowan’s business — Hemphill Construction, with an office in Johnston, R.I., — and his plans. And they left, each agreeing to meet again. Guglielmetti was indicted in 2005, charged with participating in a drug conspiracy, based on an investigation that took root at that meeting in Tampa. He ultimately pleaded guilty to distributing 5 kilograms of cocaine and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 2014.
He reflected on an undercover program’s training that, in his view, has improved since he was thrown into an Italian social club in Philadelphia as a rookie, a young white Irish guy from Boston dressed in khakis and a starched shirt, only to be told to leave. “Kid, I like you, but nobody knows what the [expletive] you’re doing here,” a man, in his 80s, had told him. “Get out.” Undercover operations had not always gone so swimmingly. McGowan, born and raised with street smarts in Haverhill, had been an FBI agent for only six months in 1987 when he was asked to help in an undercover sting of a violent cocaine ring in Philadelphia, and, he remembered, “it was embarrassing.”
Sure, he had been a police officer for five years already, in Vermont and Florida. His father and grandfather were cops, too. But this was different.
“I was thrown into the fire, day one,” he said, recalling how he made his way into social clubs and gambling houses. They wore tracksuits. He wore khakis. He went by the nickname Irish Mike. That’s when the old man told him to get out of there.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/02/undercover-agent-helped-put-away-chapo-and-cheeseman-now-talking/WaRMfDZz96CQDtQZc6EZEO/story.html
Interesting stuff
[quote]Matthew Guglielmetti was serving as a union steward for Laborers Local 271, but was better known as a feared captain in the Patriarca crime family in Providence. Michael McGowan had met wise-guys like him before. An undercover FBI agent, McGowan had infiltrated Rhode Island’s corrupt construction and union communities, posing as a parking magnate from the Midwest. And there they were together, in 2001, at the Castaways seafood restaurant in Tampa, discussing business over fish and lobster. McGowan was soliciting the Mafia’s help in a concocted dispute with organized crime figures in Florida over a strip club. “In two hours, I’ve got to pass this test,” McGowan recalled thinking. The Guglielmetti meeting was a pivotal opportunity in what would become a lengthy undercover career, one McGowan recently retired from after 31 years with the bureau. His name is not well known — that’s the point — but in recent years, he’s had a hand in every major undercover case in the Boston area. “I shouldn’t be here,” Guglielmetti told McGowan at their dinner meeting. “There’s the door, get up and go,” McGowan, playing the role of ruthless businessman, recalled telling him. Guglielmetti stayed. They had dinner. They discussed McGowan’s business — Hemphill Construction, with an office in Johnston, R.I., — and his plans. And they left, each agreeing to meet again. Guglielmetti was indicted in 2005, charged with participating in a drug conspiracy, based on an investigation that took root at that meeting in Tampa. He ultimately pleaded guilty to distributing 5 kilograms of cocaine and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 2014.[/quote]
[quote]He reflected on an undercover program’s training that, in his view, has improved since he was thrown into an Italian social club in Philadelphia as a rookie, a young white Irish guy from Boston dressed in khakis and a starched shirt, only to be told to leave. “Kid, I like you, but nobody knows what the [expletive] you’re doing here,” a man, in his 80s, had told him. “Get out.” Undercover operations had not always gone so swimmingly. McGowan, born and raised with street smarts in Haverhill, had been an FBI agent for only six months in 1987 when he was asked to help in an undercover sting of a violent cocaine ring in Philadelphia, and, he remembered, “it was embarrassing.”
Sure, he had been a police officer for five years already, in Vermont and Florida. His father and grandfather were cops, too. But this was different.
“I was thrown into the fire, day one,” he said, recalling how he made his way into social clubs and gambling houses. They wore tracksuits. He wore khakis. He went by the nickname Irish Mike. That’s when the old man told him to get out of there.[/quote]