During his distinguished, twenty seven year career as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joe Pistone has gathered an enormous amount of invaluable experience and information as a deep-cover operative.
Operating under the name of “Donnie Brasco”, in 1975 Agent Pistone began the intensive and effective infiltration of the Mafia ever conducted in the history of law enforcement in the United States. Six months after his initial infiltration into La Cosa Nostra’s notorious Colombo Crime Family in New York, he was able to skillfully infiltrate, and become accepted by elements within the infamous Bonanno Crime Family. This started a six year, deep under cover operation which immersed him in the very dangerous and treacherous world of the American Mafia as one of their own…accepted and trusted. After intensive internal discussions and evaluations, in 1981 the FBI made a decision to end Operation Donnie Brasco, as it was known, and pulled Agent Pistone out of the grips of the Mafia, possibly saving his life.
The following years required Agent Pistone to make enumerable and grueling court appearances on the witness stand which were among the indispensable key elements of the largest, longest and most productive mafia trials in history. They include among others the high profile Bonanno Family cases, the Pizza Connection case, the Mafia Commission case, later leading to the Mafia Cops case. If Agent Pistone is known and regarded for one thing in his career, it would be for mental toughness. His work has been recognized by such notables as former New York Mayor Rudie Guliani, Former CIA Director George Tenant and Michael Chertoff, United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Joe Pistone’s work infiltrating the Mafia resulted in more than 200 convictions.
Retired Agent Joe Pistone has amassed, unparalleled experiences and developing resulting skills and knowledge as an undercover agent. Now as a teacher, a trainer and a mentor, he is responsible for the FBI’ Undercover Certification School and for establishing safeguards for the deep-cover agent. He now offers his experiences and techniques to the world’s police and government security agencies through his teaching and training seminars.
