I Hunted Brooklyn’s Drug Dealers As An NYPD Narcotics Detective | James Famiano

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.8 • 745 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Famiano grew up with parents battling addiction and knew from a young age that he wanted to become a cop and escape the chaos he was born into. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, James breaks down his more than 20-year career with the NYPD, working across multiple boroughs, from the streets as a Brooklyn narcotics detective to handling some of the darkest cases in the Special Victims Unit. He shares stories from inside New York’s war on drugs, the toll the job took on his mental health and family, and what it’s really like to chase criminals while trying not to become one of the broken people he grew up around. _____________________________________________ #IanBick #LockedIn #cops #NYPD #Brooklyn #NarcoticsDetective #PoliceStories #truecrimepodcast _____________________________________________ Thank you to GOLD DROP SELTZERS for sponsoring this episode: Head to https://www.thedryoak.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout for 10% off your order. _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 I Grew Up In Addiction Before I Wore A Badge 02:13 Watching Addiction Destroy My Family 03:30 From Italian Suburbs To The NYPD 06:06 Why I Chose The NYPD Over A “Normal” Life 09:12 Inside The NYPD Academy: What Really Happens 14:10 My First Nights Policing Midtown Manhattan 17:57 A Young NYPD Cop’s Reality On The Street 20:00 Patrolling Chinatown: What Tourists Never See 23:17 The Cases That Turned Me Into A Real Cop 26:41 Going Plainclothes: The Rules Change Overnight 29:00 Sent To Brooklyn Narcotics: Everything Escalated 32:26 How I Turned Brooklyn Drug Dealers Into CIs 36:00 How I Actually Became An NYPD Detective 41:03 Major Drug Cases, The Feds & Rikers Island 46:34 Going Undercover In NYC’s Drug World 51:44 Courtrooms, Corrupt Cops & Hidden Misconduct 57:39 I Thought I’d Die On This Call 01:02:02 NYC Crime: Then vs Now From A Narcotics Detective 01:07:36 Internal Affairs & NYPD Politics From The Inside 01:12:53 Working SVU: The Cases That Still Haunt Me 01:18:01 Cop Culture, Divorce & Life After The NYPD 01:21:07 My Unfiltered Advice To Anyone Becoming A Cop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.7	A proffer is when you work off your time and you're not getting paid.
0:34.5	And I wanted to have this guy and told him I retired.
0:35.7	I used him for everything.
0:37.3	And he was a serious killer.
0:42.1	Serious dude. And let me tell you, he knew his shit. And every information that he gave me was valid.
0:47.9	Between guns and drugs. James Famiano grew up with parents struggling with addiction and decided early on he wanted to become a cop. Over a 20-plus year, NYPD career, he worked in multiple boroughs from Brooklyn narcotics to special victims.
0:57.6	In this episode, you'll hear how his childhood shaped the way he policed, what day-to-day life was really like inside those units and how the job affected him on and off the clock.
1:10.2	Where'd you grow up, James? I grew up in Long Island. Okay. What was that like? It was good. I grew up with two brothers, two parents, and it was good, good suburban life. My mom's side of the family's from Rockville Center. Okay. Yeah, it's not too far. I grew up in Wantor, so it's like maybe 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. East.
1:28.0	And I, I, uh, worked at the Whole Foods in Massapequa.
1:30.8	Oh, well, I was like 10 minutes from there. Oh, really? So yeah, yeah, I know where, I know the area well. Yeah, lived in a little Airbnb, like, rented a room for the couple months I was there. Okay. And then I was like, there's nothing to do out here in the winter.
1:42.1	Yeah, yeah.
1:42.8	So then I came back.
1:44.3	Okay.
1:44.7	To Connecticut.
1:46.1	Cool.
1:46.7	Yeah.
1:47.1	That's cool. There's nothing to do out here in the winter. Yeah, yeah. So then I came back.
1:44.6	Okay.
1:45.7	To Connecticut.
	...

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