Known as Bobby Covert, Bob Delaney, a former undercover NJ state trooper successfully infiltrated the DiNorsico crime family for 2-1/2 years in 1975-1977 and helped convict 29 "made" mobsters.  At 23 years old, he jumped at the chance to go undercover in "Project Alpha" in one of the country's first long-term operations in history.

Teamed up with a consigliere for the DiNorsico family who had turned police-informant to avoid jail, Bob opened a trucking business and was soon in the middle of the mob and completely cut off from all his family and friends.  Usually wearing wires, unarmed, living another life and trying to control his emotions, his guts were turning inside-out every day.  With stories about guys in freezers and legs smashed with baseball bats, he never reacted until his drive home when he would stop the car, roll down the window and vomit all over the road, a delayed reaction to living with a fear few people can comprehend.

In the process, he became Bobby Covert, completely almost forgetting who Bobby Delaney even was.  Befriending some of the mobsters, he lost himself completely to the point that finally the big raid was planned and 29 "made" mobsters were arrested and he watched as they were brought back in handcuffs.  As they filed in that night, some mob members still didn't believe Delaney was really an undercover cop.  How could he be? He was a friend of theirs.  Wasn't he? "Hey Bobby," a handcuffed mob friend yelled to Delaney that night, "what did they pinch you for?"

For nearly a month after the raid, Delaney was under 24-hour surveillance. At least two state troopers were with him at all times.  Death threats came and his bosses told the crime bosses, "If he catches a cold, if he gets a problem, we're going to be all over you guys."  At first, all it took was a loud sound, any loud sound anywhere, and he would jump, his nerves frazzled.  It took a year and a half for him to get a normal night sleep and two years before he fully returned as Bobby Delaney. 

Thanks to groundbreaking cops like Delaney, the mob of today seems less powerful and organized.

After 14 years in law enforcement, Delaney is now one of the top referees in the National Basketball Association and, after 17 years of refereeing, he was presented with the prestigious Gold Whistle Award in Portland, becoming just the second NBA official to win the award since its inception in 1987.

Refereeing playoffs, All-Star games, and for the last three years in the NBA Finals and receiving rings each time, Bob Delaney still remembers his undercover stint and to this day he still instinctively scans each room he enters.  "I don't sit here every day and think about it," Delaney said, "but there's an awareness that I have. There are precautions I take.  I'm not scared. If I'm afraid to go out of my house or if I'm afraid to live my life, then who has won? It's no different than what we're experiencing with 9/11. If we all alter our lives and change our lives, then the bad guys win again."

Read the entire article from Associated Press.

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