I almost look at it like dating,” Falco said. To infiltrate the biker gangs, he had to start from scratch, frequenting bars where members were known to hang out and relying on his street knowledge to chat them up. When his house got raided in 2001, he made a deal to cooperate with the ATF to avoid a 22-year prison sentence. You have to try to win them over.’īefore spying on the bad guys, Falco was one himself, making up to $100,000 per month manufacturing and dealing methamphetamine. His story - first told in a 2013 memoir - is the inspiration for “Gangland Undercover.” After a stint in witness protection, he returned to life as an informant infiltrating two gangs in Virginia, the Mongols and the Outlaws, in 2008. It’s lonely, too.”įalco (an assumed name) was undercover in the Vagos motorcycle gang in Victorville, Calif., from 2003 to 2006.

If you have an education, you can’t take that with you. Your Social Security Card is 6 months old - how do you explain that to people? You have no job references. “You lose your identity and sense of self-worth,” he told The Post. The 45-year-old spent a year in the program in 2007-08 after infiltrating a deadly biker gang in Southern California. It’s a feeling the real Charles Falco knows well. On last Thursday’s season premiere of the A&E drama “Gangland Undercover,” ATF informant Charles Falco - played by actor Damon Runyan - was living in witness protection, working as a mechanic, and frustrated with his rootless life.

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