Dead Ringer: An Insider's Account of the Mob's Colombian Connection

Gatley, an employee of the U.S. Customs Service; Joe Caffaro, a Sicilian-born businessman with Mafia ties; and Leo Fraley, an American career criminal who became involved in Colombian drug-smuggling--these men are an unlikely trio to be the subjects of the same book. Yet all played major roles in court cases which tied the Medellin drug cartel to the mafia in Sicily and thence to the U.S. mafia. That the tie exists is no revelation to those who read news stories about organized crime, so this volume by Gately and freelancer Fernandez is hardly eye-opening; nor are their portraits of American mobsters as stupid and greedy and Columbian drug lords as cruel and merciless anything new. What readers will find informative is the depiction here of interbureau rivalry among the FBI, the DEA and Customs, bureaucratic infighting which does not augur well for the drug war, note the authors. Photos. (Sept.)