# FBI Tampa field office history: Operation COLDWATER

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-history-tampa-coldwater/

The FBI's history of its Tampa division says that in the late 1970s it began an undercover operation called COLDWATER, in which "New York FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone participated," and set up an undercover social club called King's Court.

The FBI's undated history of its Tampa field office. Most of it concerns other cases. The passage on the Bonanno family reads: "In the late 1970s, it began a major undercover operation called COLDWATER. New York FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone participated in the operation, helping to gather information and intelligence on the Bonanno crime family as it looked to begin operations on Florida's western coast."

It continues: "The division set up an undercover social club called King's Court that engaged in bookmaking to draw in and identify mobsters and document their illegal activities. In 1982, 60 subjects—including members of five Mob families—were busted on charges of racketeering, gambling, perjury, robbery, narcotics, extortion, and bribery."

The page names no town. The Eleventh Circuit places "the Kings Court Club in Holiday, Florida" in its summary of the 1983 Florida indictment against Benjamin Ruggiero and others ([754 F.2d 927](/items/courtlistener-us-v-ruggiero-754-f2d-927/)). The figure of 60 subjects is the FBI's. In August 1981 the New York office copied its report of the Ruggiero interview to Tampa, "Attn: COLDWATER."

## Sources

- FBI.gov, Field Office Histories, Tampa: https://www.fbi.gov/history/field-office-histories/tampa