officer leland? you know the difference between a black man and nigger?
yeah, most niggers don't.
nice to meet you.
so, winston, what's the difference between a black man and a nigger?
thanks for coming in.
gerald carver, united states district attorney. call me gerry.
you can tell he's a cop?
then why's he taking him to the room?
charles taft. lapd narcotics.
he's a great cop. two and a . as tough as they come and twice as honest.
you are. if you want to be. most undercover guys don't know what they're doing because it's a day gig. i need somebody who goes under and stays there; six months, a year, five years.
buy drugs. sell drugs. feed me information.
he's a drug dealer. a criminal. a scumbag. but for the right side. i want you to come to los angeles on loan to the justice department as a federal agent. your experience there will be credited toward your seniority here. and you'll come back to cleveland a p3 or higher.
you're separated from your wife, she's filled for divorce. you see your kids every other weekend.
come on, a little grass?
what's to understand? you saw your father killed when you were ten, and you decided you wouldn't be like that. i'm god, i know everything. you wanted to be a good boy, so you became a cop. hiding out in uniform.  that's why you got the hard-on for taft.
i'll tell the truth, joe. you're never going to be a taft.
you ever take a look at your psychological profile? you score almost like a criminal. "resents authority"
". exaggerated moral standards, but with no underlying value system." look at the anger, the repressed violence, it's almost off the scale.
why'd you join the force?
well, now you can be. you won't be taft, but maybe you'll be something more.  interesting. there's a man named ramon gallegos who supplies 60% of the cocaine to the west coast. he's smart, smooth, and sufficiently elusive that we don't even have an adult photograph of him. however, his uncle is hector guzman, an important latin american political figure. gallegos uses uncle's connections to get product into the country, and everyone we've sent after him has ended up like that.
you already are, that's the point.  you've got the ability and the personality to go underground and blend in completely. that's what the others couldn't. some part of them showed. that's why they're dead. see, there's only one rule in this game.
don't blow your cover.
barbosa, felix.
get to elias. then to barbosa.
rush it, please. i want art, john, not reality. budget hearings start in april, and i need gallegos by then. they won't give us funding for three ounce buys.
without funding, we aren't doing it at all.
i can't buy this much shit. i haven't got it in the budget.
you're a drug dealer, john. deal drugs.
don't blow your carver.
you're still thinking like a cop, john. forget that. cross the line. be what you are. you're a criminal. you don't give a shit about other people. you're just trying to survive.
but you want to be of use. you want to get drugs off the street, don't you?
well, this is the cost. pay it or go grow flowers someplace.
synthetic shit?? sounds like a 20. 20 segment.
so, what was it like?
popping ivy.
i'm god, remember?
you didn't clear it with me. you're getting independent. that's good.
how're we coming on gallegos?
then you've got to --
i want you to get a new apartment. something expensive.
that shithole? you're big time now. act it. and get some clothes. spend money. have fun. that's an order.
you run elias.
my problem? my problem is that you don't really know what's happening.
barbosa is setting you up tonight.
he's dealing you to taft and hernandez. you're going to be taken down as you receive the drugs. they're putting together the arrest team right now.
you stay away. we're going to take them down.
my boss wants a bust right now. he goes before the oversight committee next week. he needs something to justify the budget.
too late. the whole thing's set up.
it's out of my hands.
john, don't go near that bust.
get in.
where the hell have you been?
you violated a direct order to stay away from that bust. as a result, a police informant is dead, a state senator was critically injured in the tunnel pile up and a city policeman was subsequently murdered.
don't get smart with me, motherfucker.
never have, never will. i want you to give me your gun. you're coming in right now.
your assignment has been terminated. you're not going out there again. if i have to, i'll put you in custody.
you violated orders, so you're through. don't make a conspiracy theory out of it.
you're insane.
all right!
it's the state department.
i told you, gallegos's uncle is a big deal down there.
guzman, right. our government supports guzman because he's a moderate. that's a right-winger who's pro-u.s. if gallegos got busted here, it would hurt guzman's political career there. it's politics, john, not drugs.
i'm going to washington, john. i'll bring you with me. we'll have clout, money.
we tried.
but you can't do that, john. it's not you.
it's not that simple.
don't blow your cover.
he vanished, thank god, or we'd both be in deep doo-doo. at least you got gallegos.
that's the drug game. plus a change.  i want you to come back to work for me. you'll beat all charges on a technicality and go back to who you were.
does anyone really know?
like travel? tangiers, maybe?
i'm god, remember?
go back to work, she walks out of here. otherwise, she's up on multiple counts, and i'll see to it the judge runs them consecutively.
betty walked out of court free this morning. that's my side of the deal.
her probation gets revoked the minute you fuck up. i want you to stay away from her altogether.
don't blow your cover.