Be who you are and sell that person.
Not a make believe guy.
'Cause they don't want a make believe guy.
Right.
They want what's here and here,
and money in their pocket.
My name's Eddie Follis, and for practically three decades
I worked as an undercover agent
for the United States government,
and in particular the United States Marine Corps
and Drug Enforcement Administration.
As an undercover agent,
Eddie Follis put his life on the line countless times
to take down what the U.S. government called
some of the world's most nefarious drug barons.
Embedding himself in places like Egypt,
Lebanon, Israel and Pakistan.
I would apply for every place
that nobody else wanted to go.
And where the sources of supply
for the various types of drugs
were produced and distributed.
I just made my mind up.
I said I don't care what happens now.
I don't care where my life takes me.
If I'm gonna do that,
I'm gonna make this mandate on my life.
And then it was just, like, no course correction.
It just happened.
In other words, go big or go home.
Which is where Eddie started, in California.
The first large case that I assembled
was the Sam Essell case
in Los Angeles and I was a lad.
I mean, he thinks I am his partner.
His real partner, like brother.
And he's told me at times that he values me
more than his own brother.
Essell worked as a Nigerian drug trafficker,
who owned several legit businesses
and laundered money through them.
The next larger case that I worked on
was the Amado Carrillo Fuentes case from Narcos fame.
Welcome to the Medellin Cartel.
He was known as the Lord of the Skies.
And my partner and I, we were able to develop
the first warrant on him.
And that was out of Juarez, Mexico
when I was assigned to El Paso, Texas.
Next was Myanmar, tasked with
arresting the man then responsible
for 80% of the heroin that arrived in the U.S.
The Khun Sa Shan army,
you know Zhang Quifu, opium warlord empire.
17,000 drug insurgence was taken down
in the course of two months.
The strategic applications of this incredible group.
Eddie says that in order to get in good
with these kids of guys, you have to give a bit of yourself.
I have to call it junctures.
You get to a juncture and there's more trust.
You get to the next one and there's more trust.
So when you convince these people
to sell you whatever it is,
whatever the contract may be.
It could be murder for hire, drugs, you know, any vice,
weapons, corruption, whatever.
When you get to that juncture,
and they look you in the eyes,
and they trust you like a brother,
then you're in.
Then there's no limit to what you can do.
Except when it comes to your personal life.
With all the major
crazy, insane professional satisfaction
and success I had in taking down, and being part of four
king pin's demise,
there is a toll on you.
And it never does allow for that stability that's necessary.
They said in the Marine Corps,
when I first jumped into this trade,
if the corps wanted you to have a wife,
they'd issue you one, right.
And they meant it.
And that just kind of carried through
implicitly throughout my career.
And the times that I did, it didn't work out so well.
And it's wholly attributed to me on my side.
So there's a price to be paid for anything.
Eddie has written a book,
consulted on Hollywood films.
I thought Dennis was a creature
who was the lateral thinker
who manages all these different quarrels.
That's why you need Dennis.
And is working on an upcoming TV series.
His incredible story is getting renewed attention
through another Hollywood heavy hitter.
Ed O'Neill, best known for his roles as Al Bundy in Married
with Children and Jay Pritchett in Modern Family,
has started a podcast called The Undercovers.
A drug deal is about to go down.
Two kilos of Southeast Asian number four heroin.
Right here, in the middle of the park.
In the middle of the day.
The first season is a sequencing of my life.
Throughout the beginning, fundamentally
to the day that I left and parked my badge at DEA.
When Eddie looks back at his career
he realizes he got there, and stayed there
by following some key rules.
Like keeping your first name
and only changing your last name.
Maybe there's dope, drugs, people,
arrests coming your way.
And somebody may say, "Eddie" and you're gonna' turn.
Reflexively, you're not going to be able to help yourself.
But, it's okay if the bad guy knows you as Eddie, right?
Or paying with fake credit cards.
Like, in the beginning, I'd always carry credit cards
that were canceled out in my name.
So, then if I was out with the crooks, they'd pay for a meal
"Ah I'm sorry sir, this one's over limit."
"Oh sorry sir."
That's what real crooks do.
And of course, looking the part.
It doesn't matter what the reality is.
It's their perception to reality that can get you killed.
And you have to control their perception to reality.
That's the greatest undercover trick there is.
Their reality is a perception of you.
It's not the actual reality.
That's the trick.
For a career intense enough
to make anyone wince, Eddie is grateful.
Especially to still be alive.
It is just incredible to wake up every morning
and just be happy to be at the party.
For insideedition.com, I'm Stephanie Officer.