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