Tuesday, July 2, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.
Life hasn't been easy for John Branco in the aftermath of his service as an FBI informant in "Operation Thin Crust."
Since April 1997, when his undercover work ended and criminal indictments were returned in the racketeering case, the one-time mob figure has been forced to move four times, change his name twice, and worry about a contract on his life.
"Times are tough now," Branco said. "You feel pretty chopped up. But in my heart I did the right thing."
Jerry Hanford, supervisor of the FBI's Organized Crime Squad in Las Vegas, said there's little question that Branco has had to change his life dramatically.
"There's no retirement program for former mobsters," Hanford said.
The 67-year-old Branco, who now lives at an undisclosed location outside Nevada, said he's proud of his work with the FBI, but he also isn't totally pleased with the way the bureau has treated him.
He said he believes the FBI still owes him $20,000 and hasn't done enough to help him earn a legitimate living under his new identity.
Today, Branco said, he remains unemployed and gets by on his savings and the part-time earnings of his wife, Carolyn.
He said he and his wife also are in constant danger, the result of a reported contract ordered by Los Angeles underworld figures he helped send to prison -- the same men who once wanted him to become a member of the crime family. Branco was offered a chance to join the family while he secretly was working for the FBI, but he never did.
Last summer, while living on his own without FBI protection, Branco learned that the Los Angeles mob sought the help of New York's Gambino crime family in finding him.
"You're always looking over your shoulder," he said. "You've got to be careful of everyone around you. When you get into your car, you never know whether it's going to explode."
The worst part is not being able to carry a gun because of his status as an ex-felon, Branco explained.
"It shakes you up," he said. "I'm supposed to be a good guy now, but I can't even protect myself."
Branco said he declined to enter the Federal Witness Protection Program in April 1997 because his wife didn't want to sever ties with her family.
The FBI, he said, helped him get a new name and find a house in the Phoenix area. After a year the Brancos moved to Sacramento, but were forced to move to Kingman, Ariz., in April 1999. While there, Branco changed his name one more time.
Then last summer, after Branco got wind of the Gambino family's efforts to find him, he said he and his wife picked up again and moved. Branco would not say where.
Branco acknowledged that the FBI paid him more than $145,000 in salary and expenses for his undercover services, which began in fall 1996.
When he went to work full time for the FBI in January 1997, he said, the bureau gave him a short time to sell everything he owned, including his lawn service, mobile home and trucks. Then the FBI put him up in an apartment and agreed to pay him a $3,000 in salary and $1,100 in expenses each month until he fulfilled all of his government obligations and the criminal cases were resolved.
"Contrary to what defense attorneys and others may say, the FBI did not pay us enough money to live extravagantly on," Branco said. "It paid us enough that with our modest lifestyle, my wife and I were able to pay our bills and save some toward getting another business to start our lives over."
But Branco said the FBI in early 2000, while some of the Thin Crust cases still were open, cut back his monthly payments to $1,000 and stopped giving him cash for his rent and utilities.
"This was so unexpected," he said. "We were not prepared, and we had to dip into money we had been saving."
Eventually, he said, the FBI stopped paying him altogether with about a year left on his verbal agreement.
Branco said the FBI gave him a large sum of money before he left Kingman last summer, but he still felt shortchanged.
Charles Maurer, lead undercover FBI agent in Thin Crust, called Branco a victim of a stagnating court system, which lets cases drag on for years, and an agency (FBI) looking to move forward with new criminal investigations.
"The organization said 'what has this guy done for us lately?' " Maurer explained. "They want to spend the money on what's going on now."
John Plunkett, who ran the FBI's Organized Crime Squad until his retirement in September 1999, said he believes the bureau treated Branco fairly.
"I think the world of John," Plunkett said. "I think we did the right thing by him. There's always new cases coming up, and everybody wants a piece of the pie. But there's only so big of a pie."
Hanford added: "He was paid well. We did the best we could for him."
Branco said he appreciates the opportunity to turn his life around, but he added he's not convinced the FBI has done all that it could for him.
"The FBI should have kept its word and stuck to the agreement it made with me to the very end, just as I kept my word with them to the end 100 percent," he said.
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