Without a Badge: Undercover in the World's Deadliest Criminal

The spellbinding account of Jerry Speziale, police officer in New Jersey and New York City and one of the youngest recruits in the DEA's war on drugs, and his odyssey through undercover intrigue, Colombian drug lords, amazing take-downs and nerve-janglingly narrow escapes. As an NYPD detective, Speziale was a highly effective soldier in the war on drugs. When he was tapped for a DEA task force, an elite group charged with taking down the powerful Cali drug cartel in South America, he welcomed the chance to confront America's drug problem at its source. Piloting planes, building landing strips, sailing Cali-owned yachts filled with cocaine, Speziale met the most powerful kingpins in drug trade - with whom one false step could have meant death. Within a few years he and his fellow officers became the most successful drug unit in U.S. history, arresting dozens of high-level dealers and confiscating twenty-two thousand pounds of cocaine. But a betrayal by his mentor caused Jerry's life to spiral dangerously out of control. The behind-the scenes brutality, the time away from his family, and the relentless stress of undercover life all took their toll. Paranoid, sleep deprived, stressed to the breaking point, Speziale was on his way to losing everything. Without A Badge is the story of his outstanding accomplishments - and how he survived.