Retired Undercover Narcotics Detective-Kevin

all right Kevin yes sir Kevin uh where are you from originally where'd you grow up I was born in Summit New Jersey which is north north Jersey about 20 minutes from Manhattan I uh was raised in a small town called Madison really nice little town up in Jersey um grew up there uh wanted to be wanted to be a police officer early in life up there uh eventually we moved to Sarasota Florida and uh was raised there from uh for quite a while until I decided to get into law enforcement what was it that made you as a Young Man wanna yeah I don't know I always wanted to be a cop um I remember two detectives from New York coming to my grandfather's house in Madison to to look at a car he was selling and two you know they were dressed in regular clothes I guess they were off and they showed up to my grandfather's house to to look at a car he was selling and and I just looked at them like they were superheroes like Batman and Robin were at the house and uh you know it's just something I I always knew I wanted to do that's great and you eventually did it yeah came to Sarasota uh applied for Sarasota's Department they were put me on a waiting list uh they weren't hiring at the time I saw the Tampa was hiring so I moved up here to Tampa got on right away Sarah said I got in contact me when I was already going to the academy here in Tampa and they wanted me to come on there and I said sorry too late I'm going to stay with Tampa and that's how I got here tell me about being a cop in Tampa how do you think it's different than than if you had stayed up by New York well well the crime was bad here back in the day I started in Patrol didn't do that long too much paperwork didn't really like it I went into the canine unit uh had a good dog I enjoyed that I did that for five years and then I got into plain clothes street level narcotics and I fell in love with that because I got to go to work dress like this no more uniform nobody knew I was a cop got to fool the bad guys you know make arrests that way did you have the beard I did not have a beard at the time I had I wore a wig back when I did street level we weren't allowed to have long hair so I wore a wig that was down to about the middle of my back I I'd go out in a in a uh like a gas station shirt you know some that an employee would wear at a gas station with a name tag and uh I probably did more more uh undercover drug purchases than anybody on the department at that time I was I was good at it I had the Gift of Gab I guess from being up up from Jersey you know that Northeast wit so I could talk anybody into anything being an undercover narcotics detective is is a bit of a jump from the cops that came by to by your you're oh yeah well who knows maybe those guys were undercover narcotics that came but uh you know I just once I got on I and I got to wear plain clothes and go to work undercover I I knew that's what I wanted to do for for the rest of my career the adrenaline has got to be a big part of it right it is it is it's uh like I said I probably bought more dope we had a unit called quad quick uniform attack on drugs Tampa used to be inundated with crack cocaine when crack cocaine became became the thing and there there were probably a hundred intersections you could go to here in Tampa and you'd have it your choice of dealers there would be anywhere from two to 15 guys selling crack so uh it was the Wild Wild West back in the day when I was when I was doing it the street corners yeah this is still going on today just in different different it's probably still going on when I drive through town I don't live in in the city anymore I live on the outskirts but when I go to certain places I used to work in it looks a whole lot better it's a lot cleaner I'm sure there's still a lot of places you can go to get street level narcotics here but it's a whole lot better than when I was in Quad and and we fought against that stuff you have some interesting stories uh a couple uh one time I went to a hotel on Nebraska I was uh one of my uh informants that was a prostitute set me up uh to go there and and buy off of off a black male who was in the hotel so I knock on the door he was expecting me through my informant I uh bought the cocaine from him and then the unexpected happened now sometimes doing undercover I'd wear a gun hide a gun sometimes I didn't it depended on what I was doing where I was going how I felt what I was wearing sometimes I I did the undercover without without having a gun with me this time thank goodness I had one so I bought the cocaine from the guy and he decides to block the door I thank him I go to the door he blocks the door he goes you're not going anywhere until I see you do it well obviously we're not allowed to do it um don't want to do it so when he blocked the door and he had a prostitute in in the bed with uh in his room she was under some covers she was fiddling around so I didn't trust her I didn't know if she had a gun underneath the covers so luckily this time I had my gun I I reached behind me pulled my gun out pointed it to his head and I said you you make a move I'll blow your head off how's that sound I'm a cop and then the prostitute started fiddling around under the covers and I thought she might be going for something so I put the gun on her and told her the same thing I said darling you better freeze I said while I back out of this room you do anything that other than that you're gonna get it so I held the gun on the both of them uh made my way out of the room and called in the Cavalry who you know I had backups hiding outside the hotel room and we made the arrest without incident thank goodness and you're married I'm married my wife was a cop you met her downstairs she was a cop for a while I didn't really want to be married serious with a with a female cop I didn't want to have to worry about her she was a nurse prior and after we became got married and and became you know a solid relationship she quit the department pretty much because that's what I want her to do and she went back into nursing yeah she understands the the crazy lifestyle yeah she did but you know I didn't bring it home you know a lot of cops live eat and breathe this stuff to me it was just a paycheck it really was I mean just make sure my check's there every two weeks I I didn't think of my job even though it was a lot different I didn't think of it any different than a guy who collects garbage uh you know the mailman I really didn't but so I didn't take a lot of home and tell her stories like I've I've heard a lot of guys say they do I was able to separate the two and I would think it'd be hard once you started Living this lifestyle even though you're on the right side of the law to just keep it separate from your personal life yeah but I did I mean I I was coach I was a baseball coach as well my son was into sports I did a lot of coaching and to be honest with you I like that and that was more important to me than than the job so I was easily able to forget the job when I was off and and get into that that part of my life because I loved coaching yeah the adrenaline rush though yeah well well another good story um a bit of a sad story I did Undercover for one of the biggest street level operations probably ever I know I know in quads history quads no longer a unit they call it something else now but I had a black female informant I forget if we I think we were paying her she wasn't working off charges uh we we were paying her to to take me around and do this stuff well she took me to 40 of the probably the top level now these weren't huge guys selling kilos these were street level guys but they were they you know they were the bigger bigger street level dealers who'd give it out to other guys who'd go infest the you know the street corners she took me around to 40 of them over a couple month period me undercover with her in the car and I bought dope from about 40 different again of the bigger street level dealers and we didn't arrest them right away we just identified them made sure we know knew who they were and we saved it for a big Roundup when when we you know had bought from everybody we could so we do the Roundup we get about 30 of the 40. that day good Roundup good real good real good uh real good deal for us the city uh I think we got the other 10 later we got most of them I think we got them all it took us a while to get the other 10. well unfortunately the informant after this was over I knew a lot of them would put two and two together I mean there they take a risk too um either working off charges or getting paid to do this they're taking a risk she received a box one day uh I don't remember if it came through the mail or if somebody made it look that way and put it on her porch the informant that took me around to do all these cases she takes the Box in her kitchen and it blows up somebody had sent her a package bomb so she wasn't killed she was severely hurt and uh a lot of her kitchen was was blown up I never did go to sear I felt kind of bad about that you're not supposed to get personal with your informants you know you don't you don't really have anything to do with them unless you're on the job actually working a case but I really did want to go see her I like this girl she did a lot for me for the city but I never did go to see her my supervisors did and we ended up giving her money uh she she recovered she got out of the hospital and the city gave her money to uh relocate to move out of town yeah do you see a big difference between the makeup of somebody who takes you know a career on the right side of the law and those that are on the wrong side oh yeah the criminals is there a big difference well there should be there should be there's not there there's you know there are certain departments um where they they cross the line they do things I've heard stories valid stories where they cross the line and in my opinion they become criminals themselves um you know when I got promoted device detective and we did the bigger cases the kilos things like that um Iran I ran into thousands of dollars on a monthly basis we seized thousands of dollars uh I never took a penny yeah it was drug money and I was there counting it seizing it from these guys who made the money off selling drugs uh thousands of dollars on a monthly basis I I never even thought about taking a penny to me that was stealing I would have been almost just as much a criminal as them um you know I didn't most of my informants were prostitutes I'd go out and make sex cases on them instead of charging them I'd offer them to take me around to their they were all on dope so instead of charging them with a sex charge they would work off their charges by taking me to to uh drug dealers around the city and and make cases on them but uh you know this I heard guys say they you know they tasted the drugs you know why would you want to taste it some of the drugs were laced with they put poison in drugs they put all sorts of cut stuff to to make more money and rip people off as opposed to selling pure stuff why is a cop would you want to taste it we weren't allowed to taste it um if if I tasted drugs doing a case and they found out I'd probably get I would have been fired other departments I won't name names uh I guess got away with that um but to me that's the wrong way to go Tampa ran a real tight ship and I think most apartments around the country do now other departments get away with a little more or have been known to be you know corrupt some corruption I'm not going to mention any agencies you know who I'm you know you can imagine who I'm talking about um we ran a tie chip at Tampa if you screwed up you got in trouble if you screwed up bad you you'd get fired if you're really screwed up you'd be prosecuted and arrested so it was a tight ship runner for working for Tampa and I'm glad I worked for an agency like that you you worked how many years 23 years probably three quarters of that in in undercover whether it was street level or or vice detective do you see Society getting worse or better with crime um well that's that's a tough question I mean Society I think's going down the toilet uh but not not just with drugs uh as I said when I come into Tampa now I see places that used to be drug infested they're now nice looking places so I know speaking of the city of Tampa it's been cleaned up quite a bit and and I'm proud to say that I was a good part of that um when I got to uh when I got to Vice uh it was harder to do undercover as as a white male because uh they didn't they didn't trust us um you know if I did I did my share of undercover but it was an advantage as a vice detector would be black Hispanic because sellers dealers would trust somebody like that more than myself so I I had to pretty much count on informants um there's a there's an old saying a vice detect is only as good as their their informants and that's that's basically true and we get them through either a resting a small fish we'd climb the ladder to bigger fish with them you know reducing their charges or some people just work for us for money they wanted to do it and and we'd pay them for for uh for helping us out your mental illness is a big thing out there in on the streets what uh what kind of stuff have you seen in your career well there's some crazy people out there there's some crazy people I had an informant a black female she was a prostitute I had made a case on her and again she'd turn in all her drug dealers to not be charged for her sex charge and she used to tell me that she had a client who was a doctor here in Tampa a doctor and he would pick her up and take her to his home beautiful home she said definitely looked like a doctor's home and I was sure this guy was really a doctor and he would pay her to throw rotten fruit at him naked he would tie his hands behind his back get naked lean over a chair and he had a bowl of rotting fruit on a table and he would pay her to throw rotten fruit at his rear end splattering it all over the place that would turn him on and then he'd masturbate not hurting anybody not hurting anybody but but this is a doctor you gotta that's kind of kind of strange um she had another client who was a lawyer was an attorney here in Tampa and he'd either pick her up and take her to his home which was another beautiful home she said lawyer's home or he'd take her to a hotel what he did was he took her out and made her eat he'd fill her up he'd he'd make her eat keep buying her food buying her food until she couldn't take anymore well they'd go back to his house or the hotel she'd have to poop so when she had to go he'd have her sit on a clear table he'd lie underneath watching it while he masturbated that's that turned him on that's what he paid her to do yeah Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous so you know it there are some there are some crazy people out there um no doubt um I had prostitutes I won't name any names I had prostitute informants that I went to a hotel on Dale Mabry here in Tampa one day to set up a deal and my informant white little white female she was a pretty girl she's on the phone and she tells me to hold on She carries on a conversation and she hangs up I go come on we got to get going here what she goes I'm sorry that was so and so won't name any names he was a professional baseball player um she goes he's one of my studies she goes that was him she goes out he's one of my steady clients yeah you know teach his own but it was we also when I was in Vice we used to do wire Taps we'd tap people's phones the drug dealers phones you know through through the you know the judge signing it and blah blah blah and we'd listen to all the phone calls to make cases it was called a wiretap and I had uh we we did these dealers here in Tampa and they would talk about being good friends with a lot of sports figures they'd mention them in the uh you know on the phone and in conversation hey I'm going to see so and so he's flying me up for the series this weekend and uh and these are hardcore Big Time drug dealers you know saying that these sports stars are still hanging around them bringing them to games bringing them to stay with them and they'd mention the names and uh it just made me wonder you know it was it was crazy you know here you are a successful Big Time Sports guy and you're still doing God knows what with these with these street drug dealers you know so how is how is the the career that you had changed you again Mark I didn't really I wasn't I've heard guys you've had on from other departments say you know it you just fell into this life you forgot about your family blah blah blah that that wasn't me and my family came first what I did on my own time came first so it really didn't change me it it I I'm I feel lucky blessed I did 23 years and I have a great pension I get money put in my account every month for for doing nothing you're able to keep your work your work and I was able to keep my work my work which I've heard a lot of guys say they weren't able to do and I was able to keep family and friends separate that's great yeah yeah now I'm on a nice pension enjoying life golfing going to the gym you know living a good life off of uh a lot of people say Kevin you earned it what you did well that might be true but but again you know it was dangerous but I didn't I really didn't think of it that way I thought of it as just another job like anybody else has a job you feel like it was something that you were meant to do I think it was something I was meant to do there's two things I was a good like I said I I I I was good at more so when I was doing the street level cases than being advice because as I said the higher you got and you're doing bigger case it was harder to do undercover because of being a white male and dealers didn't trust you they thought you were a cop it would street level wise uh there I don't think there was anybody better at the time on the department than I was going out I'd go to I'd go to dope holes where they would say they will not sell to white guys if you're white you cannot go in there and make a case so I would all right I'd go in there I'd make a case I'd like to I'd like to think I could talk yeah I could I could talk to these guys after they are arrested to turn in their their mothers for for leniency that gift to gab I guess like I said maybe it's from being from the Northeast work I think it's known up there to be a little quicker a little Wittier even though I didn't live in Jersey for a super long time it it I'm a jersey guy Kevin what would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in in all of this the most important lesson uh staying stand straight uh not letting the job become my life taking over my life staying on the right side as opposed to other Detectives that I've heard talk um no you know again I was blessed to to work for a department like Tampa who was so strict about doing the right thing um real quick just to get on again Tampa was a straight-laced police department you you had to do the right thing don't get me wrong we had bad apples there were guys that were fired there were guys that were arrested the best undercover guy Vice detective one of the best probably Tampa's ever had uh when I was doing the street level stuff he was already a vice Detective he he did something with money or he was giving out information on on uh cops to suspects saying not to buy from these guys he was doing something with drug dealers against us and we couldn't believe it he he was like he was like the the god of of of undercover detectives on our department at the time and he got caught and he got fired and he got prosecuted and he went to prison so you know there's good and bad and all I mean most of the guys I worked with to let people know most of the guys I worked with out there were did the job for the right reasons they were good people they wanted to protect the public they wanted to put bad guys in jail but you you have your bad apples no doubt and there were plenty not not probably as much as some agencies I I could think of a name but we had our our share of of people that got in trouble and I'm just glad Lessons Learned I I'm just glad I guess I was able to do things the right way throughout my career you know I never never again never tasted any drugs never used any drugs didn't sleep with any of my informants I didn't thousands of dollars I came across on a monthly basis I could have pocketed a thousand or two who would have known it was Drug Money and I've heard guys say that they did that well to me that was wrong and it was wrong and on on Tampa if they would have found out I I at least would have been fired if not prosecuted and I'm glad I never put that to the test and stayed on the right right side of what I was doing yeah all right Kevin thank you so much for sharing your story I appreciate it thank you fascinating thank you thank you thank you

Channel: Soft White Underbelly

Views: 176,045

Keywords: soft white underbelly, swu

Id: mgzIN1NaN3Y

Length: 25min 52sec (1552 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2023