Summary of the Presentation on…
Deep Underground for the FBI
NSF members were treated to a most informative and entertaining presentation by Willie Reagan, former FBI agent who worked for many years infiltrating the criminal underground. Reagan had a normal background– graduated from Notre Dame and then NYU law school. He joined the FBI and did some criminal work in Miami and attended Chinese language school in Monterey, California.
Reagan’s life soon changed and he spent 30 of his 35 years in the FBI working criminal cases, including the Weather Underground, the Columbian Cali drug cartel, the traditional mafia, Russian organized crime, and the Japanese Yakuza. Then Director J. Edgar Hoover was adamantly opposed to his FBI agents infiltrating these organizations, but Reagan persisted and his superiors gave him permission to drop out of society and become part of these terrorist and criminal groups.
He spent many years living in a commune in Marin and successfully infiltrated the Weather Underground Organization (WUO), formed in July of 1969 as a spinoff of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS). Reagan was an active member of what was described as a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary communist organization and observed the group planning terrorist acts, including bombings of Universities and elected officials homes. He was able to contact the Bureau in time to prevent most of the bombings and to assist in the arrests of the culprits.
He also infiltrated the Yippies, Venceremos, and later the various Mafia families. He worked undercover for a Chinese group affiliated with the Hong Kong triad, then against the Italian Mafia, including the Gambino and Luciano families. He infiltrated various drug cartels, including those from Columbia and Japan and was able to assist in the arrest of several participants.
Willie Reagan has said he is thinking about writing a book on his experiences. We all encourage him to do so and look forward to its publication!