The Seldom Seen

Every year, $350 million worth of illegal narcotics get smuggled into the U.S. Most of the stuff comes from Turkey, Communist China and Thailand, moves through processing plants in France, then is passed by racketeers to dope pushers on street corners, in barrooms and pool halls. Last year the Bureau of Customs seized nearly 1,500 oz. of heroin, 48,000 oz. of marijuana at U.S. ports and borders. That is a big haul, but not nearly big enough. The smuggling trade is still profitable enough to satisfy the needs of the nation's 48,000 narcotic addicts, 23,000 of whom live in New York City alone.

Controlling the torrent of narcotics traffic into the U.S. is the job of a seldom-seen band of 295 agents bossed by Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Henry Luke Giordano, 49, a tough veteran of 22 years with the bureau and an ingenious undercover operative. Last week a House appropriations subcommittee released testimony from Giordano, who described some of the triumphs and perils of his adventurous colleagues. Items:

> In 1962, a U.S. agent in France, posing as a gangland dope racketeer, arranged a buy from an international narcotics ring. French police closed in just as a batch of heroin was delivered to the agent. The deliveryman shot his way free, but he and the gang's ringleaders were arrested later. > In late 1962, agents got wind of a pair of brothers who were peddling heroin in New York--one taking orders in his East Harlem clothing and toy store, the other delivering the "junk" in his taxicab. An undercover agent made a buy of 102 gm. of heroin for $2,000. Later, both brothers were arrested, and 442 gr. of heroin were found in the taxicab.

> In 1963, agents boarded an express truck delivering baggage to a building in Hoboken, NJ. When two men later left the building with the bags, the agents arrested them, recovered 687 kg. of marijuana and 202 gm. of heroin. Baggage checks taken from one of the captives led to caches of narcotics at railroad stations in Poughkeepsie and Albany, N.Y., and Philadelphia. >-- In April 1963, a narcotics agent in Turkey wormed his way into the confidence of a band of international traffickers headed by the former mayor of a Turkish city. The agent arranged to buy 18 kg. of morphine base. The ex-mayor made the delivery--accompanied by 20 Turks armed to the teeth. When the agent and Turkish police got the drop on the crooks, they tried to shoot their way out. After a furious gun battle, six men, including the ex-mayor, were arrested. Said Giordano: "Very few cases in Turkey end up in other than gunfire."

> Last October in Chicago, two agents in separate cars spotted a well-known narcotics racketeer named Nolan Mack taking a heroin delivery from a second man. Recognizing the agents, Mack leaped into his car and fled. The agents barreled after him. In a dizzying chase, Mack rammed one of the pursuing cars, sent it careening into a lamp pole. The second agent finally cornered Mack. But as the agent scrambled from his car, Mack opened fire. The first bullet creased the agent's temple; the second slammed into a car window, spraying glass into the agent's face. The report concludes with characteristic understatement: "When the agent was able to return the fire, two of his shots hit Mack, causing his death."

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