Inside the Life - Lew Rice – Former DEA SAC on His Time in NYC, Miami, Jamaica and with Kingpin Frank Lucas 

Long inspired by his father, a Harlem NYPD detective, and confronted by the 1970s heroin epidemic in New York City which affected many of his young-adult peers returning from the Vietnam War, Lew Rice found his calling with the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1974. In this episode, Rice describes his journey with the DEA, highlighting his undercover experiences and how he worked his way through the ranks to supervisory roles, all while sharing the best advice he received along the way. He also explains to Dutch and Giovanni how he came to sit down with “American Gangster” drug kingpin Frank Lucas and what he learned during that pivotal time.  

A native of New York City, Lew Rice earned his bachelor’s in criminal justice from St. John’s University, Queens, New York. Shortly after graduation, he began his 26-year career with the DEA in 1974 and served in a variety of investigative assignments in the state of New York and in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1984, he was promoted to the position of Supervisory Special Agent in Miami, Florida, where he coordinated numerous international drug investigations against violent drug cartels resulting in the seizure of millions in cash, thousands of kilograms of cocaine and heroin and the arrests and convictions of major drug traffickers. During his career with the DEA, he held additional supervisory assignments in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit and New York. In 1996, he was promoted to Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC), Detroit Division covering the states of Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky and in 1997, he was again promoted to the position of SAC of the DEA office in New York, the flagship office of the DEA. In 1998, Rice was selected by President Bill Clinton to be awarded the rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service of the DEA. At the time of this appointment, he was the youngest SAC in the DEA.  

Best known for his role as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on HBO’s hit series “The Sopranos,” Giovanni and Dutch welcome actor Vincent Pastore to Inside the Life. In this episode, Vincent, Giovanni and Dutch chop it up, discussing everything from Pastore’s career in the music and nightlife industry, his experience living and working around New York Mob-types, how he landed his role on “The Sopranos” to Giovanni’s infiltration of the “real Sopranos,” New Jersey’s DeCavalcante crime family. After discussing how being an informant on the series affected him, Pastore shares the bittersweet behind-the-scenes story of the season two finale “Funhouse.”

Born in the Bronx and raised in New Rochelle, NY, Pastore didn’t get involved with acting until his 40s, aside from a small part in a 1968 soap opera. After meeting actors and brothers Kevin and Matt Dillon while running a nightclub in New York, they encouraged him to pursue acting. He is most famous for playing Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero in the first two seasons of “The Sopranos.”  When his character faces 30 years in prison for heroin trafficking, he becomes an FBI informant, forcing his character to “exit” the show.  Since “The Sopranos,” Pastore has played a wide variety of roles, including an appearance on “The Celebrity Apprentice” and a voice in the movie “Shark Tale.”  Pastore currently enjoys teaching acting workshops in New York City and regularly appears alongside his friends and fellow Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa in the “In Conversations with The Sopranos” live shows.

One of the DEA’s first female undercover agents, Patricia Naughton sits down with Giovanni and Dutch to talk about her experience inside the life. While bonding over the risks they were all willing to take, Naughton describes how she went from small narcotics buys as a city police officer to infiltrating outlaw motorcycle clubs and the Detroit Mafia as a woman in the 1980s. During an incredibly violent era in Detroit’s history, Naughton had the unique experience of crossing paths and fostering relationships with some of the city’s most influential and powerful criminals.

Beginning her career in law enforcement as a police officer in the 1970s, Patricia Naughton graduated as Indiana’s first female class president and worked undercover narcotics for both her own agency and other jurisdictions throughout the state. In 1978, she joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as part of the one percent of female agents. She began working clandestine labs and went on to become the DEA’s first female weapons instructor, training her own division as well as a guest instructor for the FBI and DEA agents at the FBI Academy at Quantico, while also acting as her own hazardous response team’s weapons trainer. She later assisted in the creation of DEA’s National Trauma Team, serving as one of its first members, responding to all critical incidents in the field.

In a rare interview, John Gleeson, the former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, shares his experiences as a prosecutor in the government’s 1986 and 1992 cases against Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. Sitting down with co-hosts Dutch and Giovanni, Gleeson gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look into how he and the government crafted the case against Gotti and his co-defendants, why they risked indicting him after losing the first trial and how Gleeson secured his star witness, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.  

John Gleeson is a practicing American attorney and former federal judge of 22 years. Prior to his judgeship, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York where he tried infamous Mafia boss John Gotti. In August of 2022, Gleeson was appointed to the United States Sentencing Commission by President Joseph R. Biden. Today, Gleeson continues to practice law in New York State.  

Buy John Gleeson’s book “The Gotti Wars”

Power, money, greed and image – Sal Polisi’s firsthand experience as a Colombo associate during the Mafia’s height in 1970s New York City is a testament to the Mob’s violence and disregard for public safety. In this episode, Polisi tells host Giovanni Rocco how after years of committing crimes with the Colombo and Gambino crime families, he became disillusioned during a stint in the Lewisburg Penitentiary. Though he was never a made man, he also describes how he became one of the government’s strongest prosecutorial assets as an organized crime expert witness.  

Salvatore “Sally Ubatz” Polisi is a former associate of the Colombo crime family. In his Mob heyday, he ran “The Sinatra Club,” a hangout spot that encouraged mobsters from different families to gather and cooperate. Among the notable people who patronized the Sinatra Club were John Gotti of the Gambino family, and Tommy DeSimone and Jimmy Burke of the Lucchese family. After flipping, Polisi provided testimony against John Gotti and other key family members.    

In this episode, co-hosts Dutch McAlpin and Giovanni Rocco speak with television and film creator, writer and producer Chris Brancato. As the showrunner of organized crime television dramas “Narcos” and “Godfather of Harlem,” Brancato explores the unique influence of organized crime on popular culture. In this episode, Brancato shares how he strategically combines real events with his own creative liberties to shape the alluring dichotomy of well-known crime figures, showcasing both their personal and professional lives.

Chris Brancato’s career in television and film spans more than 30 years. After starting in the writers’ rooms of popular series like “Beverly Hills 90210” and “The X-Files,” Brancato found his footing in organized crime with his first film “Hoodlum.” His newest series “Hotel Cocaine” debuted on MGM+ this June.

Actress Kathrine Narducci offers hosts Giovanni Rocco and Dutch McAlpin a firsthand look into the world of Mob television and film. Exploring her work as an actress, Narducci shares how she beat out more than 2,500 women for her first role, the backstory she created for her character on “The Sopranos,” the surprise of her “Euphoria” character’s viral look and details about her upcoming projects.

Narducci is best known for her series regular role as Charmaine Bucco on the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, “The Sopranos.” She held her first role in “A Bronx Tale” opposite Robert De Niro, can be seen opposite Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed film “The Irishman” and plays Olympia Gigante in MGM+’s “Godfather of Harlem” series. Kathrine is a lifetime member of the Actor’s Studio and will again star opposite De Niro in the upcoming film “Alto Knights” as Mob wife Anna Genovese.

Reformed mobster and son of notorious Chicago Outfit enforcer and hitman Frank Calabrese Jr. sits down with former undercover agents Giovanni Rocco and Dutch McAlpin to share his story of family, violence, addiction and life inside the Chicago Outfit. In this candid conversation Calabrese Jr. shares the intimate details surrounding his decision to leave the world his father pressured him into and how he risked his life to escape.  

Frank Calabrese Jr. is a former member of the Chicago Outfit and co-author of the best-selling book Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster’s Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago’s Murderous Crime Family. He was a key government witness whose testimony in the Operation Family Secrets trial devastated the Chicago Outfit and sent his father Frank Calabrese Sr. to prison for life. Today, no longer living in fear of his father, Calabrese Jr. speaks regularly at The Mob Museum in Downtown, Las Vegas, Nevada.  

Narcotics trafficking is a global problem. Agents who are sent to fight it can find themselves deep undercover on foreign soil. In this episode, hosts Dutch McAlpin and Giovanni Rocco sit down with retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent Frank Panessa. Frank was at the center of the case known as the “Pizza Connection,” during which he infiltrated the Mafia. As former undercover agents themselves, Giovanni and Dutch are able to ask Frank all the right questions. Frank talks about his start in the DEA, going undercover as a made man, how he got his nickname “The Chameleon” and so much more.  

Frank Panessa worked as an undercover DEA agent for 28 years with multiple deep cover identities. After working investigations around the world, including in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Central America, Panessa retired in 1995 as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Division, where he supervised more than 300 law enforcement personnel. During his DEA tenure, he proudly served as the Italian U.S. Embassy’s chief liaison to Italian police agencies on narcotics and organized crime.  

Who can you trust? In this captivating episode, hosts Giovanni Rocco and Dutch McAlpin discuss how their undercover work intersected at the most opportune and dire times, including an unforgettable Las Vegas dinner with a DeCavalcante crime family caporegime. 

Welcome to Inside the Life, a podcast produced by The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. In this episode, we introduce host and former elite undercover agent Dutch McAlpin. Dutch’s harrowing accounts offer a rare glimpse inside law enforcement, from his early years as a beat cop to the top-clearance, confidential world of undercover work. 

About Dutch McAlpin: 

Often working in extremely dangerous, life-threatening scenarios, Dutch McAlpin left his over-20-year career in law enforcement with an endless number of stories. From a beat cop in the Midwest to an undercover task force agent for numerous federal agencies, Dutch infiltrated outlaw motorcycle gangs, domestic terrorist organizations, weapons trafficking networks, Latin American cartels, international human trafficking rings and even the Mafia, sometimes operating with three different undercover identities at the same time.  

Welcome to Inside the Life, a podcast produced by The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. In this episode, meet host and elite undercover agent Giovanni Rocco. Through Operation Charlie Horse, Rocco was responsible for infiltrating and taking down the DeCavalcante crime family now recognized as “The Real Sopranos.”  

About Giovanni Rocco: 

During his decades-long career working undercover for the federal government, Giovanni Rocco successfully infiltrated outlaw motorcycle gangs, domestic and international terror organizations and white-collar criminals. Drawing from his service in law enforcement in various positions, Giovanni now shares his expertise with law enforcement, military and intelligence units worldwide.