But most of all, Philip Seymour Hoffman is ideal casting as the crumpled, weary Gunther Bachman, the leader of an undercover counter-terrorist unit. The result is an action twist on Pigmalion, as the wayward Nikita gradually transforms herself into a deadly fighting machine. The task force confiscated 20 tons of marijuana, burned the crop and made 177 arrests. In fact, luck was on his side. Just look at how high Coburn can kick, and try to imagine Roger Moore doing the same thing. Within a year the American couple had been executed on the charge of conspiracy to commit espionage. The Soviet Union began using "illegal" agents, living in Europe under false identities, as early as 1919, Unlike "resident agents", who are in the country legally as diplomats, they are not immune from prosecution if caught, The first illegal was sent to the US in 1921, according to the Mitrokhin archive, Famous illegals include Rudolf Abel, unmasked as a Soviet spy in the US in 1957, and Richard Sorge, who posed as a Nazi journalist in Japan during the war, In 2010, 10 Russian "sleeper agents" on a long-term mission to spy on US policy makers were exposed - including Anna Chapman (pictured). Assigned to the DEA office in the narco paradise of Guadalajara in 1980, Camarena was a convincing undercover officer with his appearance and ability to speak Spanish and barrio street language to fit in with the drug underworld. As the films heavily-publicized bar room fight scene proves, he can deliver a punch or kick as well as any modern action hero. The FBI had not knocked on the door. It's no secret that the Russians have long tried to plant "sleeper agents" in the US - men and women indistinguishable from normal Americans, who live - on the surface - completely normal lives. He might have let a word slip. Thanks to amalgam of both great writing, acting and direction, Joe Turner emerges as one of the most watchable agents of film history. But Hunt (Tom Cruise) is also a master of disguise and a cunning tactician how else can he so reliably get into high-tech, impossibly fortified buildings? While recovering from an injury sustained on the Western Front during World War I, he became a passionate communist. Michael Malone had all the makings of an undercover agent who would successfully infiltrate Al Capones Chicago gang for nearly two years. He dithered and stalled for a week. Gallardo also believed he had CIA and Mexican official protection. Like any spy worth his salt, Bond has survived by taking on different forms: the imposing, rugged Connery, the urbane, laidback Roger Moore, the introspective, street-tough Daniel Craig. While Malone kept up the charade, he delivered information that proved incriminating not only for Capone, but for his top enforcer, Frank Nitti (aka Nitto). Playing at the back of his mind was always the question of whether his past would catch up with him. "I have a very good relationship with Matthias, my son, and his wife. Pistone had to think, talk, and act like a crook (he spent two full weeks, for example, studying the jewelry industry). Jackie Chan affectionately sent up the spy genre with The Tuxedo, in which he plays an ordinary taxi driver whos transformed by a feat of technological magic into a suave secret agent in the James Bond mold. The young KGB agent arrived in New York in the late 1970s, The real Jack Barsky is buried in a Washington DC cemetery, Barsky (fourth right) felt at home with co-workers at Met Life, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. His name is on the passport of the man sitting before me now - a youthful 67-year-old East German, born Albert Dittrich. To maintain his cover, he had to divert his mind away from his wife and kids. He gained 80 pounds over the two years. And I am now a grandfather. The bust cost cartel figure Rafael Caro Quintero about $50 million. He devised a nighttime sting operation. Born in Cuba in the early 1950s, the imposing 6'4 Garcia successfully played dozens of underworld roles in over 100 different operations, with many of his stings being orchestrated simultaneously. After stepping out of his car, he was approached by a man in civilian clothes, who held up a badge and said in a calm voice: "Special agent Reilly, FBI. Sometimes, he had to run several undercover roles at once. I came here on documentation that was fraudulently obtained, so it took 10-plus years to finally become a citizen. Before he succeeded in infiltrating New Yorks Gambino crime family, FBI agent Joaquin Jack Garcia had to go school. Could he really leave his beloved baby daughter Chelsea behind forever? But he also remembered their "morally superior" attitude to the Aids epidemic - their belief that it "served the Americans right" and their determination to protect the motherland from infection. Meanwhile, a DEA force organized by Camarena seized a large cache of cocaine shipped by cartel boss Miguel Felix Gallardos operation to New Mexico and Texas. Keeping quiet, Malone replied in his Italian inflection. That got Malone invitations to play poker and trade gossip with the gang, then dinner at their hangout, the New Florence, and then to attend the birthday party Capone planned for Frank Nitti at the Lexington. season 5 episode 8 review: The Last Day, Shazam! After finessing his way into Capones inner circle in 1929, Malone proved invaluable to his superiors in the Treasury Department pursuing a tax evasion case against the Chicago crime boss. Camarena, born in Mexicali, Mexico, in 1947, moved with his impoverished family to Calexico, California. His undercover penetration of the Angels lasted more than 20 months, one of the longest ever for the ATF. The FBI had Garcia pose as a wiseguy seeking to invest in a topless bar in the Bronx. Malone listened and reported to Wilson about Capones scheme to bribe and fix the jury in his favor. In law enforcement, working as an undercover officer carries the high risk of discovery by criminal suspects, leading to violence, torture and death. Read about our approach to external linking. He told people he had had a "tough start in life" in New Jersey and had dropped out of high school. Played by a range of actors, from Jack Lord, Cec Linder, and Rik Van Nutter in the 60s to Jeffrey Wright in the 2000s, Felix Leiter is best known as James Bonds contact with the CIA and one of his closest allies. A jury Capone could not fix found the boss guilty on 22 criminal counts. Altogether, he served in more than 500 undercover operations disguised as a hitman and Mob debt collector. The agenda was to kidnap Camarena and get him to reveal his informants and other information. There, the cops nabbed Nitti, later sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers. The FBI used an informant to quell their suspicions. Irey appointed Special Agent Frank Wilson, Malone and several others to the get Capone team. Later, an Angels member would apply tattoos covering his upper arms. Federal prosecutors blamed the ATF, saying the agency did not reveal evidence from informants. He developed evidence of major marijuana plantations in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, based on informants and overflights in a plane flown by his DEA pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. Where Ian Flemings spy novels were about the glamor and fantasy of the spy game, John Le Carrs books are closer to the mundane, downbeat reality. It was not ideological. His target was the powerful Guadalajara drug cartel (which later evolved into the Sinaloa cartel). So for the first two, three years I had very few questions that I had to answer.". A court in Los Angeles found Zuno Arce guilty in the murders in 1990, sentenced him to two life terms in prison, where he died in 2012. Although experiencing some unpleasant situations that Bond has skilfully managed to avoid in his own career (see Ian Flemings original Live and Let Die novel and 1989s unusually violent Licence to Kill), Leiter remains an affable counterpoint to 007s icy resolve. In 2005, DePalma planned to honor Falcone by rendering him made within the Gambino family. Between 2001 and 2003, Alcohol . Malone had other notable cases. But the rewards can be huge, with wire recordings and eyewitness testimony that can result in arrests and convictions. A judge awarded him $173,000. The myth of the "Great Illegals" - heroic undercover agents who had helped Russia defeat the Nazis and gather vital pre-war intelligence in hostile countries - loomed large over the Soviet intelligence agencies, who spent a lot of time and effort during the Cold War trying to recapture these former glories, with apparently limited success. Her performance brings grit and humor to director Luc Bessons glossy action. Watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on Amazon, Michael Caine brings a brilliantly brash, abrasive edge to Harry Palmer, the hero he first played in The Ipcress File. And Dittrich began his new life as Jack Barsky. A federal court in Chicago convicted Guzik, who got a five-year sentence. He graduated top of his class in computer systems at Baruch College, which enabled him to get a job as a programmer at Met Life insurance in New York. In November 1984, from his background work, Mexican federal police and the DEA raided enormous pot-growing operations on a ranch in Zacatecas that employed thousands of field hands. In Brooklyn and Manhattan, he roamed bars and restaurants frequented by Mob types. Special Agent Pistone (left) sits with Sonny Black (Dominick Napolitano) of the Bonanno family and unidentified woman in the 1970s during an undercover investigation. His torture-murder in Mexico in 1985 took place at the hands of drug cartel bosses with the complicity of high-level Mexican government officials, law enforcement and, allegedly, the CIA. Best known for the famous final scene, which taught kids of all ages that guns and gasoline . First Julius in July, then Ethel in August. Notably lacking in zinging one-liners though she is, Mallorys a convincingly tough character in a story full of betrayal and would-be assassins. And it all would be worth it at least thats what he thought at the time. Richard Burton brings a wonderfully bitter, grim edge to Alec Leamas, a British agent caught in an intelligence intrigue in the midst of the Cold War. 60s TV series and played by the four-square Henry Cavill in Guy Ritchies movie revival. You took your chances, and I took mine. Joseph Pistone AKA Donnie Brasco. In 2001, to gather intelligence as Davis for the ATF in northern Arizona, Dobyns worked in the Bullhead City area, posing as a gun seller and an enforcer for a nonexistent collections agency. The KGB had not done anything.". Watch Kingsman: The Secret Service on Amazon. The judge gave him 11 years in the federal pen and a $50,000 fine, plus court costs. These days, he delivers lectures on his life to audiences at universities and law enforcement associations nationwide. "I was sent to the United States to establish myself as a citizen and then make contact, to the extent possible, at the highest levels possible of decision makers - particularly political decision makers," he says. Below youll find plenty of famous names from the world of espionage, but weve also picked out a few other great secret agents from cinema history who, we think, deserve their own brief moment in the spotlight. But he is more well-known in death than in life. Pistones 1988 book on his undercover experiences, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, was a bestseller. What makes the character so believable isnt just Parilauds prowess in her action scenes, but her vulnerable ordinariness: one protracted gun fight sees her leap from danger and land in a trash-filled dumpster. Which I think, in hindsight, was pretty stupid. Barsky later found out that he was part of a "third wave" of Soviet illegals in the US - the first two waves having failed. '", Deep Undercover - My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America, by Jack Barsky and Cindy Coloma, is published next month. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on American society. But with characteristic bravado he asked the FBI man: "What took you so long?". As embodied by Matt Damon, Jason Bourne felt like a breath of fresh air when he first appeared in 2002. 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