Thomas G. Blacklock Breakfast in Kersey

Annotation

No Drug deal is worth dying for, was the first rule of the street that I chose to call a Street Smart rule and was one of ten informal rules which guided me through a career as a Federal Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In my book Breakfast in Kersey I detail these ten rules, the Street Smarts, that I deduced from actual street experience and incorporated them with anecdotal incidents which traced the highs and lows of my Special Agent career. In tracing my long career, the many facets of drug law enforcement are exposed; from the exciting and dangerous work of undercover to the rather mundane tasks such as long-term surveillance. Additionally, the highs and lows of a federal narcotics career are examined from the thrill of making a big seizure or arrest to the heartbreaking hardships that this job has on a family and personal life. And fi nally, I off er insights at the frustrations of the job such as inane policies and procedures established by a higher headquarters that tended to hinder investigations and, at times, agent safety to the petty bickering that existed between local, state and federal agencies over drug and or money seizures and jurisdiction. Interwoven into these facets are anecdotes, both humorous and sad but every one of them real allowing a keen insight as to what it was really like to toil in the realm of narcotics enforcement.