Robert’s DEA handler, Norman. C. P. Jones comments:

In my 30-plus years of law enforcement, I have worked closely with hundreds of Confidential Informants (“CI’s”) to gain evidence that was beyond the reach of professional agents.  Virtually all CI’s are criminals who are saving themselves from something.  However, the person I assigned the UC code name “Star” was no criminal.  Instead, he was a rising “star” filmmaker out of Florida who as a loving father had objected to the sale of drugs on his daughter’s schoolyard.  When the local police brushed off his complaint, he took on that street dealer and by a peculiar twist of fate launched a personal vendetta.  In time, he would assist us to expose the brains of the Mafia’s most brilliant international cartel.  The major players included the infamous mobsters Joseph Bonanno, Meyer Lansky, and John Charles Piazza III, all with solid links to the Five Families.

While operating on his own and prior to our involvement, Star had followed his leads out of Miami to Los Angeles and on to Tucson.  As a civilian in this matter, he appeared to be ignorant that Tucson had become the home base for Joseph Bonanno who was working with all the heads of the Five Families as their capo de tutti capi in the areas of money laundering and drug importation.

I was the lucky Special Agent on duty who received Star’s first call for help.  His daughter had suddenly come to live with him and he had cause to fear for her safety.  After three years, it was time for him to “fish or cut bait.”

Frankly, every claim Star made the night on our initial interview seemed outrageous and unbelievable . . . until I ran an intra-agency computer check on the names he had supplied.  To have one federal case number per suspect pop up is enough to make me take notice, but when three popped up beside the name John Charles Piazza, Star had my instant and full attention.  Moreover, his initial claim that the Mafia had a home base in Atlanta had seemed ludicrous.  Again, I had been wrong. 

I was not alone to be amazed by his information.  Shortly after I filed an intra-agency query, I had FBI Special Agent Frederick Coward hovering over my desk demanding to know a hell of a lot more about my new CI.  Coward had been assigned to the special task force in Tucson that would eventually nail Bonanno . . . and our Star would certainly help.  Under the combined aegis of the DEA and the FBI, Star penetrate deeper into what would prove to be the most sophisticated money-laundering scheme in the history of international crime.

This portion of Morgan’s personal story is related in his autobiographical work, Citizen Spy.