What was formerly the United States Customs Service initiated Operation Skymaster, an undercover operation headquartered in the seemingly quiet Southern city of Mobile, Alabama. The agency recruited some major league players, gangsters associated with some of the most notorious names in the dope world. They pardoned their previous sins and gave them a sanitized new start on life. They were given generous living stipends, promised cash rewards based upon results and let loose.
And that was the rub. The Skymaster operatives were essentially US-certified “made men”; their pasts had been obscured, they were impervious, they could lie on the stand and be rewarded for it, they could do what they wanted and, because they were part of a governmental crime family, they were protected. Sooner or later this mix was destined to become a recipe for disaster.