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Show ai.. didn't even know the man, but they didn't know that." "I Another time he thought "this is the end" when a man he had once tesified against sat down at his table in a restaurant as Bario talked to a mob leader. "The man kept looking at me and said he knew me from somewhere, but couldn't remember where. Finally he said he did remember me and that I was a good man." (Its made with smaller doses of two laxatives.) Dangerous profession Undercover agent Sante Bario (I ) arranges a narcotics "buy." He's working alone, but bidden listening devices and cameras help gather airtight evidence. by Larry Jackson NEW YORK, N.Y. ante Bario is a federal undercover agent. His job is to infiltrate organized crime, and just his being alive proves that he does his job well. Hundreds of agents like Bario are employed by the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. They are stationed in all major American cities and 35 foreign countries. "Narcotics is a multibillion-dolla- r lifeline for organized crime," explains Dan Casey, director of the bureau's busy Middle Atlantic regional office in New York City. "If we can stop the drug trattic we can keep a lot of money out of their hands. "The traffic we're especially concerned about, of pourse, is the heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs that prompt street crime by junkies vYho need to finance their habits." But the undercover men deal with Says many crimes besides dope-selling. C asey: "We also handle everything from gambling to income tax evasion by gangland leaders. Through our narcotics work we have developed the expertise needed in surveillance and undercover work against organized crime." Bario's last job involved fingering and helping to convict an assistant New York City district attorney and two other men for taking a bribe to "fix" a case. To accomplish this Bario became "Salvatore Barone, a 'hit man' (gangland assassin) from Las Vegas." Bario said the bribe case was fairly uneventful, but several others had entailed considerable risk. 'Keep cool' "Several times I have been suspected of being a cop," says the have had guns pulled Bario. "Twice on me. But you just have to keep cool and think your way out. They are just trying to get you excited enough to make a mistake that will give you I away." Both times Bario bluffed his way out by invoking the name of a gangland chieftain and threatening to go see him. It is an understatement to say that Bario's profession is a dangerous one. For example, last October an undercover agent was killed and another paralyzed over his lower body after a New York City hotel shootout. "They had just made a deal to sell narcotics to two criminals when the them and tried buyers double-crosse- d to rob them," says Casey. The two robbers were slain in the ensuing gun battle. The job has its humorous side, too. "Once another narcotics agent had me under surveillance for more than a month and wanted to bust me," says Bario. "He didn't know I was an undercover agent and thought I was a big drug trafficker. Twice I've been arrested by policemen while I was associating with gangsters." The arrests actually worked to his benefit. "The bureau had arranged for me to have a criminal record, so the police thought they had made a big arrest. When gangland lawyers bailed me out, the mob heard about my record and thought I was a real bad guy." Sometimes the federal agents get so deeply enmeshed in planning a crime they can't get out. Must go along Some single ingredient laxatives work on the Sunday punch theory. One big dose of a strong laxative that can knock your system for a loop. Caroid & Bile Salts Tablets are made up of two separate laxatives that combine the surety of a strong laxative with the gentleness of a mild one. Together they help ease you to regularity without :ir sudden urgency upset. And because the dosage is Caroid & Bile Salts Tablets are thorough and so predictable you can almost set your watch by them. Take two tablets at bedtime. Get a good nights sleep. And you can expect to be back on schedule in the morning. Gentle Caroid & Bile Salts Tablets the laxative -- to help put your system back on schedule. d, two-togeth- "We try to let our superiors know when crimes are going to happen, but occasionally you just have to go along to establish credibility with the men you are trying to nail," says Bario. Once when he was involved in an overseas narcotics case a gangland leader asked Bario to kill a suspected informer. "I said I would do it," he relates, "but immediately began thinking of a way out." His out came when he convinced the mobster that killing the man would bring the police down on the gang. Although Bario's $23,000-a-yea- r job may seem glamorous to many people, he doesn't think it is. "It has its risks, I know that, but I am no James Bond. There are many guys like me, all doing the same job. We are professionals, not Hollywood hams." er v.ITS I . t.J Qr np L 29 |