[1][2] He was a Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) investigator, undercover Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, World War II veteran, and one of the men responsible for the capture of Lucky Luciano.

During World War II, he trained undercover Allied operatives for the Office of Strategic Services on the fundamentals of counterespionage before they were deployed on missions in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

[7] In this role, he worked with agents like Garland H. Williams under the direction of Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger to pursue mob bosses and drug dealers, and infiltrate criminal organizations.

[8] When the United States declared war on Germany in World War II, White was one person on a list of names that Anslinger sent to William J. Donovan, Millard Preston Goodfellow, and David K. E. Bruce to use in the effort against the Axis powers in their new intelligence agency - what was at that time called the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), the direct precursor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and what would eventually become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

[4] There, he was trained in British methods of sabotage, reconnaissance, guerrilla warfare, underwater and amphibious assault, trailing suspects, and managing networks.

[7] White received a promotion to the rank of FBN District Supervisor, running offices in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

[13] ONI and OSS during the war had also used Luciano as an asset to ensure protection of American forces by the Italian criminal underworld as they invaded the country and advanced northward against the Germans.

"[13][1][2] Williams charged that three months after Luciano's return [to Italy] from Cuba in 1947, the first large shipment of heroin, worth $250,000, was smuggled into the United States.

[13] White also investigated other branches of the Italian Mafia, Iranian and Middle Eastern crime families, the French Connection in Marseilles, and other European drug smuggling networks.

[6] In May 1948, White went undercover and aided Turkish police in capturing smugglers led by Severt Dalgakiran, and in the seizure of heroin plants.

[7] That same year, he led a heroin seizure operation in San Francisco, which resulted in the imprisonment of Rinaldo (Red) Ferrari for narcotics trafficking.

[15][16] White's other activities have been overshadowed by his involvement in the United States government's efforts at creating a mind control drug, which began during World War II and lasted into the 1960's.

[3] In this operation, CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb and White gave experimental drugs such as LSD to unknowing American citizens in New York and San Francisco to observe their behavior.