If you can't beat them, join them - then beat them. At least that's what the FBI agent responsible for taking down the New York Italian Mafia did in the early 2000s - by embracing the mob's obsession with food so completely that family members wouldn't even bother checking him for wires.
'I just let myself go. I found that the more I ate, the bad guys really liked me, because they didn't suspect me as being anything but a bad guy,' Jack Garcia, now in his early 70s, exclusively told the Daily Mail.
Former Special Agent Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia, 6ft 4, started his 26-year FBI career at 240 pounds and spent the majority of his career posing undercover within cartel operations.
But, in 2002, Garcia would embark on his most daring assignment: working his way into the infamous Gambino Crime Family for nearly three years as 'Jack Falcone.' He gained 160 pounds along the way.
His work was instrumental in sending 32 Gambino members and associates to prison, including Mafia 'captain' Greg DePalma, whom Garcia brilliantly convinced into making him his personal driver and close confidant.
Garcia, a Cuban immigrant who came to New York as a child, had to leave his wife and daughter and abandon his home during his 28-month-long mission, all while assuming the identity of 'Falcone,' a third-generation Sicilian from Miami.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Garcia admitted his own love of food and the Mafia's obsession with mixing business and eating helped him win over the hard-to-crack New York crime family.
Former Special Agent Joaquín 'Jack' Garcia seen during his days as an undercover operative for the FBI
Pictured: Garcia at roughly 240 pounds during his FBI training. The undercover agent said he became a US citizen specifically to join the FBI in 1980
Garcia was recruited for the Mafia assignment when a fellow agent asked him to help with a case at a Bronx strip club that was being targeted by Albanian gangsters. The FBI needed a mature, street-smart 'knock-around guy' who could blend in.
He entered the case by posing as an investor from Florida who was moving to New York and had been vouched for by the club owners, who were paying the mob for 'protection'.
The Gambino crew, led by Gregory DePalma, was extorting money from the strip club, construction companies and many other businesses at the time.
García said that while Hollywood portrays the men carrying out these schemes as flashy businessmen, the truth was far darker.
'These guys, some of them are psychopaths. These people are capable of one minute shaking your hand, the next minute killing you,' Garcia said.
'They always preach, "we're men of honor." They're the furthest thing from men of honor. There's always treachery involved; there's deceit. You have to watch yourself.'
Once Garcia earned the trust of DePalma, whom he regularly saw at the Bronx club, the mob pushed the spy to infiltrate unions to get 'no-show jobs,' where mobsters were on the union payrolls but never had to report for any work.
The scheme granted medical benefits to each mobster's family, while the Gambino family maintained control of the work on local construction sites.
Pictured: Jack Garcia (Left) filmed while infiltrating New York's Gambino Crime Family
Garcia, now 73, retired from the FBI in 2006 after a 26-year career
During his undercover mission, Garcia discovered how the Mafia committed crimes such as rigging bids for construction contracts, skimming money from union payrolls by replacing workers with unskilled laborers and running gambling and loan-sharking operations.
Inside the mob, there were 'earners' who made money for the family and 'brokesters' who did not generate revenue and were used to commit the lowest of crimes, including killings and other violent offenses.
Garcia avoided being ordered to kill anyone by posing as a reliable earner, selling fake 'stolen' Rolex watches, TVs and furs - which were actually supplied by the FBI to maintain his cover.
'We would go to the forfeiture unit of the FBI, where all the dirty businessmen and drug dealers, their Rolex, solid gold, stainless [steel], and we would keep their watches during forfeiture. Then I would get some, and I would go to Greg [DePalma] and go, "my guys made a score".'
The veteran agent also used his weight as a shield, saying he was always prepared to tell his superiors in the mob that his obesity gave him a weak heart and killing someone would likely send him into cardiac arrest.
He added that the Mafia preferred earners because they brought in cash that flowed upward to the bosses, while brokesters and shooters were less valued family members, expendable if they were arrested by the police.
'If you're a money maker. Why, on heaven's name, would they utilize you in a conspiracy to commit murder? That's where these guys who are not earners come to play. Your earners, you don't touch. Because you're making money, and I was an earner,' Garcia explained.
Despite the stereotype of gangsters constantly looking for wires, Garcia said he was never searched for microphones, and he wore one to every meeting he had with the mob for three years.
He explained that mob members knew that if they patted him down and found nothing, it would destroy the trust he had established as a value earner for the family. At the same time, if they found something, the relationship would be over anyway.
To keep his cover, Garcia lived in his own undercover apartment with his own car and fake ID, sometimes going months without seeing his family because of the real fear that DePalma or another Gambino boss would call on him at all hours of the night.
Pictured: Garcia during his training to become an FBI agent in the 1980s
Garcia said his love of food and weight gain helped to convince criminals he was not a law enforcement officer
While Garcia and other federal officers tied to the operation felt they were close to bringing down other mob families throughout the US, including in Philadelphia and Kansas City, the historic undercover operation came to a shocking end in 2005. FBI management decided to prematurely shut it down, even though Garcia was about to be proposed as a 'made' man, which would have made him an official member of the Gambino Crime Family.
'There was no reason, nobody suspected me to be anything else but Jack Falcone. I was being proposed to get made. It was just a poor management decision that I felt, as well as the United States attorneys who were involved in the case, were very livid as to why they were ending this case,' Garcia recalled.
The case still resulted in the arrest of 32 Gambino members and associates, most of whom pled guilty, thanks to the extensive evidence Garcia gathered.
DePalma went to trial and was convicted on more than two dozen counts of racketeering and extortion; he was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison and died in custody in 2009.
Acting boss Arnold 'Zeke' Squitieri and acting underboss Anthony 'The Genius' Megale were also convicted on racketeering charges related to extortion and other crimes.
Pictured: Garcia (Right) officially becoming an FBI agent in the 1980s. He was only the second Cuban FBI agent at the time
Garcia (Left) stood with former FBI Director Christopher Wray (Right) at the 2024 G-Man Honors Dinner
After his real identity was finally revealed to the Gambino Crime Family at trial, Garcia said he learned that the mob had allegedly placed a $250,000 contract on his life. However, Garcia said he never feared for his safety after the operation.
'The Bureau gives you whatever you need in order to make it successful. I had some amazing people who just made sure that I made it home all right.'
In 2024, Garcia was celebrated as the FBI's Distinguished Service Honoree at the G-Man Honors Dinner, an annual gala to recognize the service and sacrifice of FBI personnel.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the gala: 'You could say Jack's career is the stuff of legend, but it's better than that because it's actually true.'
'In fact, Jack was so good at fooling the mob that at one point they considered inducting him into the family. Now, that's commitment to the job.'