National and International Exposure for COVERT continues...

As Bill Walton would say, proudly, "Get on the bus."

The Covert, My Years Infiltrating the Mob "bus" is on a roll. Heading uphill at 75 mph, at least, and we know we're good with the NJ State trooper badge on the driver's side window.

Here is a sample of the Associated Press story that will be in many a national daily this Saturday and Sunday:

NBA referee recounts life as Mafia infiltrator

DAVID PORTER
The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. - When fans or players vent their frustrations at NBA referee Bob Delaney, the 21-year veteran usually has no problem shrugging them off.

That's because the calls he makes on the hardwood pale in comparison to the ones he had to make as a New Jersey state trooper who went undercover to expose the Mafia in the mid-1970s.

Those days are brought to life in a new book, "Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob," by Delaney and writer Dave Scheiber.

A contemporary (and later friend) of Joe Pistone, the undercover officer who was the inspiration for the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco," Delaney had told his story piecemeal over the years, giving savvy fans material for some creative barbs.

"I was doing a Washington Wizards game when Michael Jordan was making his comeback and it was late in the game and the home team was losing," Delaney said Friday. "I made a foul call and there was a lull and suddenly, a guy gets up and yells, 'Hey Delaney, after that call they should put YOU in the Witness Protection Program!'"

The nearly three years Delaney posed as a crooked operator of a trucking business in northern New Jersey were no laughing matter. He and another state trooper and three FBI agents set up the bogus company to gain insight into the mob's infiltration into legitimate businesses.

Nicknamed Project Alpha, it was the first joint operation of the FBI and the New Jersey State Police aimed at organized crime and it resulted in the arrests of numerous members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families.

Delaney recalled with no small degree of amazement how the mob moved in soon after the company was started and eventually started taking 25 percent of company profits in exchange for steering lucrative contracts and guaranteeing peace with the labor unions.

It didn't stop there, however.

"Pretty soon they'd start billing you for other things, like having you pay for rental cars for their girlfriends or vacations for their families," he said. "Eventually they'd just wipe you out."

Delaney and his fellow officers benefited from the help of Patrick Kelly, a consigliere of the DiNorscio faction of the Bruno crime family who turned informant. Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio, who was imprisoned at the time, later served as the inspiration for the 2006 Vin Diesel movie "Find Me Guilty."

The danger of exposure was constant for Delaney, who took the name Robert Covert for the operation and frequently wore a recording device while meeting with mob members.

More lasting was the psychological strain of inhabiting another persona, and Delaney recalled becoming physically ill on numerous occasions. It took him several years after he returned to regular police work before he felt comfortable in his own skin.

"I'd go on investigations and I'd be acting like I was still a mob guy," he said. "It took quite some time because when I look back, a lot of it I repressed. I wouldn't even share my own feelings with other people."

Delaney found solace in basketball, refereeing middle school games in southern New Jersey and eventually working the Jersey Shore summer pro league and earning an invitation to the Continental Basketball Association. He became an NBA referee in the late 1980s and has worked more than 1,200 games, including the 1999 NBA All-Star game.

He declined to discuss details of the recent gambling scandal involving former NBA referee Tim Donaghy other than to express his disappointment that elements of the world he'd once inhabited had resurfaced.

"I've lived through police corruption cases with the New Jersey State Police, and the idea of being painted with the same brush hurts," he said. "It happens in many walks of life, and unfortunately we experienced it. But we'll get through it."