Mafia Miami: FBI Politics and How an Investigation Was Nearly Sabotaged

This is a story about Operation Paesan Blues, an FBI Organized crime investigation that began with little chance of success, and ultimately became a successful and internationally renowned investigation. Beginning with a synopsis of the author’s background, his early development as a young FBI Agent, to a day in the working life of an FBI Agent, and then progressing on through to the development and operation of the undercover FBI investigation that became “Paesan Blues.” In addition to the author, who was the lead FBI Agent in the case, the reader is introduced to main subject Roberto Settineri, Antonio Tricamo, various mafia associates, celebrity “cooperating defendant” Scott Rothstein, and several other FBI Agents who assisted in the investigation. This is a first-person account of an FBI investigation that takes place primarily in Miami, with a few brief stopovers in New York and Italy along the way. This remarkable and entertaining story also takes the reader through the difficulties and challenges of initiating an FBI investigation, and the many twists and turns and inevitable administrative roadblocks one encounters while running a high-profile and complex FBI investigation. Interwoven throughout the story are highlights of key bureaucratic changes taking place within the FBI at the time, cultural and policy driven, which the author highlights and explains how those changes had a negative impact on not only the Paesan Blues investigation, but to the entire future of the FBI’s effectiveness and reputation.