The French Connection by Robin Moore

Author:Robin Moore
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Law Enforcement, Political Science
ISBN: 9780747578659
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 1971-01-01T14:00:00+00:00

On Monday morning, January 15, a meeting was held at Narcotics Bureau headquarters in the 1st Precinct station house. Present in Lieutenant Vinnie Hawkes's office was essentially the same group of detectives and Federal agents who had met there five days earlier to map out strategy that would destroy Patsy Fuca and his associates. In grim, quiet voices, they discussed what ways and means were left them to salvage the long investigation.

That Patsy was now a major dealer in narcotics was not questioned. That Patsy had been on the verge of concluding a major transaction with the French connections was also beyond doubt. The pivotal question was whether the Frogs' abrupt departure signified that the deal had been culminated, the junk having been delivered and paid for in part. But perhaps they had been scared off before the exchange could be made. The only other alternative was that they had been disturbed by police surveillance but had not aborted their plans as yet and were regrouping for a final exchange of smuggled heroin for Mafia money.

As for the first possibility, that the shipment already was in Patsy's hands, this would mean that the suppliers, the Frenchmen, had left with short dollars. Police knew that the modus operandi in narcotics commerce resembled a pyramid. The connections to whom Patsy sold junk were given a price per kilo, pegged to current demand, and before the shipment they would give Patsy "front" money, a down payment on the total to be paid, pending safe delivery and verification of quantity and quality ordered. After the day or two it usually required for these wholesalers to distribute the marked-up merchandise to their own customers, they would come back to Patsy with the rest of the "bread." And so it went down the line, to the pusher on the street corner dealing in consignments of "nickel" ($5) bags of heavily cut heroin.

Meanwhile, at the top of the pyramid, where the big financing occurred, Patsy dealt in similar fashion with his suppliers. When they produced the shipment ordered, Patsy had to make a minimum down payment, and, after he had successfully delivered the goods to his preferred customers—never any more than five or six big operators—he would complete the payoff to the French manufacturers. The wholesale price to Patsy for such a formidable shipment as the rumored fifty kilos would have amounted to about half a million dollars at the going rate. Patsy would have been expected to put up about half, or perhaps even $300,000. Normally, after unloading their illegal cargo, the suppliers could either afford to relax and wait around to receive their full installment, or if the receiver were a particularly good and reliable customer, they could wend their way home, confident that full payment would be forthcoming. But if there were any conflict, as the police speculated there had been in this instance, the Frenchmen might be uneasy about departing with only partial payment from Patsy. The police also considered the recent rumors

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