S5.E3 ∙ Holding Onto Hope

This film is based on the life of a swindler called Jack Silberstein who was active until the end of 1960s.

Criminal organizations succeed by enforcing a strict code of trust and loyalty. To penetrate these organizations and gain access to their inner circles the police need a magic bullet. Alex Caine is that magic bullet. Only 30 years old, Alex, who grew up hard on the mean streets of Montreal, already brings a lifetime's worth of experience (foster care, military service, prison time) to the world's most dangerous occupation: professional gang infiltrator. His job is to befriend criminals, participate in their illegal activities, and gather evidence--then live long enough to testify against them in court. Inspired by real-life events, "Befriend and Betray" tells the story of Alex's first infiltration assignment: the case that transformed him from a rootless young man into a highly effective, defiantly unconventional crime-fighting resource. He is approached by P.C. Lau, a ruthlessly ambitious soldier for the Kam Tin Triad, who asks him to help his old prison acquaintance with a business proposition. Since Alex comes from Montreal and speaks French, P.C. figures that he's just the man to be the face of the Kam Tin as they try to move their heroin into eastern Canada. What P.C. doesn't realize is that Alex has been approached by the police and Criminal Intelligence Services who have asked him to say "yes" to P.C.'s proposal--thus giving them a long sought-after way into the Kam Tin. Complicating matters for Alex is the fact that his girlfriend Melanie has no idea that he's agreed to work for the police. Alex figures that the less she knows, the safer she'll be. But the more he lies to protect her, the more likely he is to lose the one person who sees him as more than just a valuable crime-fighting asset. Combining action, suspense, humour, and actual details drawn from the case files of Alex Caine, "Befriend and Betray" tells the story of one man's re-birth as an infiltrator--and his struggle to not lose his identity or his life along the way.

The story of Felipe Pugoy, a troubled inmate who, with his gang, instigated a hostage crisis in a Davao City prison that led to 21 deaths (5 hostages and 16 inmates, including Pugoy) in 1989.