The secrets of Mark Ruskin, the FBI’s Franco-American chameleon

Drug lord one day, arms dealer the next. For more than 20 years, Franco-American Special Agent Marc Ruskin has infiltrated the largest criminal groups in the United States. At the time, this FBI cop trapped one of the nation’s biggest counterfeit money smugglers after six months undercover. He used a dozen different identities, he was never caught. Except that day, when in a restaurant in Queens, he almost died. Infiltrated in the Cosa Nostra, he arouses the suspicion of a mafioso. “He ran his hand behind my back to see if I had a microphone“, he recalls.

During his operations in New York, the FBI agent always returned home with great care, changing direction or suddenly speeding on the highway. Born in Paris to a French mother, Marc Ruskin spent 27 years at the FBI. Retired from service since 2012, he has been decorated many times. He is now married and a father, he has just published his memoirs in which he recounts his operations. For him, nothing will ever replace infiltration. The FBI recruits 600 new police officers each year, but few of them will become permanent undercover agents.