Method Acting

They played their roles perfectly: dockland toughs, racketeers, underworld fixers. So completely did they work their way into the confidence of the Mafia-backed labor groups in the harbors that they ended up as bagmen, carrying payoff money back to the mob. Last week there was no mention of the actors when 400 subpoenas were served for two federal grand jury investigations of an extortion ring that has preyed on at least a dozen shipping companies in New York City and other Atlantic and Gulf ports. TIME has learned that the trusted men who worked so closely with the Mafia and its allies in the International Longshoremen's Association were in reality FBI agents.

The remarkable undercover operation began in 1976, when officials of an East Coast shipping firm told the agency about making payoffs to the I.L.A. to get cargoes loaded more quickly. The extortion ring reportedly collected between $3 million and $5 million on a yearly basis. In December a federal grand jury in New York indicted Fred R. Field Jr., a top official of the I.L.A., for allegedly shaking down the United Brands Co. for nearly $90,000.

Last week's subpoenas sought the records of two I.L.A. chiefs: William E. Boyle of Miami and Anthony Scotto of Brooklyn. A polished and urbane operator, Scotto is something of an aristocrat in the union, having visited the White House during the Lyndon Johnson era. Eight years ago, the Justice Department identified Scotto as a Mafia capo (captain)--a charge that Scotto has steadfastly denied.

Special Roles. Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, his colleagues believe, worried that undercover work would allow agents to operate largely outside the bureau's rigid discipline. Under Clarence Kelley, however, agents have posed as Mafiosi, fences, jewel thieves and swindlers.

Understandably, the FBI is proud of its actors. "Undercover is the best way to go," said an FBI official in Washington. "When he works himself into the right place, the undercover man gets direct evidence of criminality. And you don't have the credibility problems that go with an informant--or the legal hassles presented by a wiretap."

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