Every second for five years, he risked discovery and certain death — being beaten until he was nearly dead, a bullet to his head and his body dumped in the desert.
Charles Falco lived undercover inside America’s deadliest biker gangs among murderers, sociopaths and “meth heads.”
He risked his life infiltrating three outlaw biker gangs, bringing violent criminals to justice.
“Sometimes I was wearing a wire and I didn’t have any backup,” he told News.com.au.
“There were times when I was searched and I didn’t have a wire on me.
“By wearing a wire and getting these guys to admit the crimes they committed, [we got] criminal convictions.
“I didn’t have any experience with biker gangs. I could have been uncovered at any time.”
But going deep undercover as a means of escaping a prison sentence for drug dealing and addiction, Falco in turn became addicted to life inside the gangs.
Falco has written a book about his experiences, “Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws: My Infiltration of America’s Deadliest Biker Gangs.”
Three years after his ordeal as an informant for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Falco says outlaw clubs which are fronts for organized crime gangs are in global expansion.
Falco described the brutal Outlaws as “a war machine,” the Vagos as “mafia on wheels” and the Mongols as “way, way more ruthless … because they aren’t afraid to go to prison — forever — so they walk right up, around children, and blow people away.”
It was to the Vagos in San Bernardino, California, that Falco went first.
In the 1990s, he became addicted to the methamphetamine he was trafficking for Bulgarian mob dealers and was arrested for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute a commercial quantity of the drug.
He was given an ultimatum: Serve a 22-year minimum jail sentence, or become an undercover agent.
After two years as a street informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency, he “wanted to step up and do something even bigger.”
He hung around bars and was eventually accepted as a trainee, or prospect, in the San Bernardino chapter of the Vagos, also known as the Green Nation or the Green Machine.
Within months, Falco was living a double life as a full-fledged Vagos biker and an undercover ATF informant.
The Vagos had fights every week and Falco became know as “Quickdraw” for his rapid fisticuffs.
“I was in the Vagos two-and-a-half years, I got into a lot of bar fights,” he said.
“There was violence, there were serious crimes, every type of organized crime, murder, embezzlement, drug dealing.
“I had to hold back, be observant, because if I committed a crime, I would be [locked up] too.
“Two of the members did a home invasion and a murder.
“They bought a lot of drugs and guns.”
Falco’s secret wiretaps and testimony led to 25 Vagos members going to prison for firearms, drug, assault and murder convictions.
He ended up in hiding in the witness protection program.
“But I started to miss doing something I saw as important,” he said.
With two other undercover agents, Falco infiltrated a Mongols chapter in Virginia on the East Coast.
Inside the Mongols from 2004 to 2005, he found similarities with the Vagos, “but they were much, much more violent.”
“The difference between the Mongols and all other biker gangs is they brought in outside Hispanic street gang members,” he said.
“They were 18, 19, 20 years old and they were willing to go to prison, they expected to.
“So they would go where the Hells Angels were. There might be cameras, but they’d walk right up and blow them away.
“They almost stabbed a Hells Angel to death at a Chuck E. Cheese pizza joint … in front of children.
“They don’t care if they get caught.”
The Mongols were at war with the Mexican mafia.
Falco’s chapter concentrated on dealing in methamphetamine and cocaine, and “planning and hunting down Hells Angels.”
“That’s what they live for,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter where they are, they have to continue the war against the Angels.
“It’s the same with the Outlaws.
“They’d get files on [Hells Angels]. They’d investigate where they lived and worked.”
Falco entered the Outlaws as a prospect in late 2008.
He spent a brutal few months undergoing beatings and watching the Outlaws beat their women.
“The Mongols are very old school and treat their women as second-class citizens, their property to serve them,” he said.
“But the Outlaws are worse. They give their old ladies, who are their slaves, black eyes and beatings.”
Falco suffered serious injuries to his shoulder and spine coming off his bike while riding with the Outlaws.
As an Outlaw, he was “being hunted the whole time by Hells Angels.”
As a result of his testimony and an ATF investigation of Outlaws in seven states, 27 gang members were locked up.
He now works in the corporate world and keeps his identity concealed, accepting that he could one day be shot by a biker gang member.
His undercover work resulted in more than 60 arrests for serious crimes.
“The RICO laws [crimes under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] have reduced the amount of violence among these gangs.
“Infiltrations by the ATF has destroyed their power, but it hasn’t destroyed their numbers.”
Falco said the global spread of gangs, which includes the expansion of the Australian-based outlaw club the Rebels into the US and Europe, was ongoing.
Outlaw gangs looked for new opportunities in all regions, including increasing numbers in Asia, for criminal activity, principally drug trafficking.
“It doesn’t matter where they are in the world, they will have to continue with the war.”
This story originally appeared on News.com.au.