Underbelly Files: Infiltration

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This is a true story. Australian cop Colin McLaren goes undercover in an attempt to infiltrate the mafia. McLaren, who poses as a dodgy art dealer who can launder money, is introduced to the highest levels of the Italian mafia. He befriends the Australian Godfather. They form a relationship and McLaren eventually starts to negotiate and purchase vast amounts of pure cocaine. He needs corroboration to prove the drug buys so he introduces his girlfriend to the mafia syndicate. A Police woman without any undercover experience. She excels and the sting gets better and bolder. They spend two years socializing with the mafia, as McLaren does various drug deals, and the evidence mounts up. In time the mafia invites McLaren into a massive conspiracy to import a plane load of pure cocaine from Columbia as well as a plane load of Buddha sticks - cannabis - from the New Guinea jungle. The drug importation is signaled by the Police hierarchy as the end of the operation, although McLaren wants to keep working in order to uncover how the mafia murdered a politician. McLaren and the police command fall out, and McLaren is ordered to end the sting and the mafia are all locked up. In disgust, soon after, McLaren walks away, resigning from the Police department.