True Crime Discussion - the Italian Mafia with Bobby Chacon | Clips

Former FBI agent Bobby Chacon joins me for a discussion about his true crime experience working the Italian mafia, specifically the Luchesse family, Henry Hill as well as the Lufthansa heist which was the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.

The Sicilian Mafia was founded in Sicily by elements of the Camorra, a crime organization established in Naples, in the early 1800's. It became established in the United States through the immigration of some of its members in the latter 1800's, the early 1900's, and the mid-1960's and early 1970's. The American La Cosa Nostra evolved from the Sicilian Mafia organization that first surfaced in New Orleans in the 1800's and later in New York City in the 1920's. Today, the Sicilian Mafia is a formidable criminal organization in the United States, controlling a worldwide heroin distribution network. It has business ties with the La Cosa Nostra and contacts with other criminal groups. Federal law enforcement agencies cooperate with one another and with their foreign counterparts, particularly in Italy, Canada, Switzerland, and Australia, to counter Sicilian Mafia criminal activities. In 1984, the FBI director designated Sicilian Mafia cases as a major priority within the FBI's Organized Crime Program. Other agencies contribute intelligence data on the Sicilian Mafia. The Sicilian Mafia intelligence base must be expanded to further define the nature of the problem and to assist in identifying the individuals and structure of the Sicilian Mafia.

Bobby was trained in and excelled at developing and operating informants, conducting surveillance, running undercover operations, performing Title III wiretap investigations, executing high risk search and arrest warrants, assisting in grand jury presentations and testifying in federal district courts. Bobby became the FBI's leading expert in Jamaican Posses and travel to Jamaica, Canada and the UK to testify as an expert. Bobby was also a FBI Legal Instructor lecturing to other FBI Agents on 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment issues (mainly) as they related to FBI investigations.

In 1995 Bobby is selected as a part-time diver on the FBI's NY dive team. Over the next 19 years, with the help of the FBI Laboratory Bobby will establish the FBI's Underwater Forensic Program, setup and train the FBI's four regional evidence dive teams and pioneer the field of underwater crime scene investigations. In 2000 Bobby became the first full time diver in FBI history when he was selected to be the Senior Team Leader of the NY FBI dive team. During this time Bobby was a diver on the TWA Flight 800 case and led the NY Dive Team on cases such as the Anthrax searches in Virginia, the Space Shuttle crash in Texas. Bobby, working with the FBI Laboratory, established the selection, training, equipment and operational protocols for the entire FBI Underwater Search and Evidence Response Program.

In 2003 Bobby was transferred to Los Angeles but was immediately dispatched to Athens, Greece for nine months to help Greek authorities prepare for the 2004 Summer Olympics (a similar position he held at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City). In 2005 Bobby was tasked with leading a team to Baghdad, Iraq to teach counterterrorism courses to the Iraqi police and military. In 2006 Bobby again returned to Iraq, this time as part of an elite FBI dive unit requested by the Pentagon to conduct a sensitive dive operation in southern Iraq to assist US Army CID. Bobby returned to Los Angeles in late 2006 and was the full time FBI LA Senior Dive Team Leader from 2007 until his retirement from the FBI in 2014.

Today Bobby is a writer/consultant on the hit show Criminal Minds.

For more info about Bobby go to www.bobbychacon.com

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