One high-profile buy-and-bust focused on a rogue weapons consultant, Roy Lynn Oakley, offering rods used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Post-9/11, Ruskin found himself sidling up to traitorous Americans selling classified information - including dirty-bomb recipes - to foreign governments. A guy there patted me down for a wire.” It happened to be one of the rare occasions on which Ruskin was not wearing one. “We were having a good time,” Ruskin said. One potentially close call came during dinner at a mobbed-up restaurant in Queens. Ruskin confessed to being scared on much of that job. Ruskin provided hot diamonds to be moved on 47th Street and cash to be laundered by a restaurateur with Mafia ties. Playing a small role in a 2004 rousting of Genovese crime family members, he was “Daniel Martinez,” an international jewel thief who favored stylish suits. Charges included fraud, counterfeiting and bribery of public officials.Īs Ruskin’s career progressed, so did the level of criminal he portrayed.Īs Ruskin’s career progressed, so did the level of criminal he portrayed. Soon after, Mahmoud and 49 others were arrested. “I told to wait outside, turned to Mahmoud and said, ‘Let’s charge this asshole top price.’ Mahmoud smiled. Understandably paranoid, Ruskin feared that “the guards had been told to close the metal gates in front and bring a van around so they could kill us and take the bodies out the back door.” Then the guy returned with documents. He turned angry and barked orders in Arabic.
Mahmoud, backed by bodyguards, got suspicious. But during one with Mahmoud, a neophyte FBI agent forgot Ruskin’s undercover name. Soon after, a bust went down on East Houston Street. As Alex, Ruskin met other false-document sellers. They played at being drug lords and killers, paying thousands of dollars for new identities and piling up evidence. He brought various undercover agents to Mahmoud’s travel agency - actually a front - in The Bronx.
Fbi undercover agent switching assignment drivers#
As he recalled, “I hung out with made guys who kill undercovers.”Īmong the scary dudes he buddied up with: Mahmoud, a violent Middle Easterner who, during the early 1990s, dealt in drivers licenses, Social Security cards and license plates obtained through crooked clerks working out of government offices in Manhattan, Yonkers and The Bronx.Īfter cold-calling on Mahmoud as Alex Perez, a midlevel gangster with a ponytail and a shady past in Miami, Ruskin registered a hot car, gained trust and infiltrated deep. Annie Wermiel/NY PostĬurrently practicing criminal law, the wiry Ruskin, now 63, retains at least one trapping from his FBI past: On a recent afternoon in Manhattan, he had a gun discreetly holstered beneath the waistband of his pants.īut who can blame him? During his 27 years as a fed, Ruskin was often concerned for his life. Double- and triple- lives unfold in his memoir “The Pretender” (St.
Marc Ruskin trafficked in heroin, pedaled stolen jewels, laundered money - and he worked for the good guys.Īs an FBI undercover agent, Ruskin maintained about 12 different identities, routinely juggling three at a time.
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