home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- NATION, Page 33American NotesCRIMERiding a White Mare
-
-
- When FBI agents and police burst into three houses in New
- York City last week they got more, much more, than they
- anticipated. After 17 months of stalking an international drug
- ring in the U.S., Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, they were
- expecting to turn up about 50 lbs. of heroin in the raid. But
- hidden inside a stack of small rubber tires was an astonishing
- 820 lbs. of the narcotic, with an estimated street value of
- nearly $1 billion. It was the biggest heroin bust ever in the
- U.S. Some 40 people, including the ring's suspected kingpin,
- Kok Leung Woo, 71, were arrested in New York and more than half
- a dozen cities around the world.
-
- The investigation was code-named White Mare, a name inspired
- by the color of the drug and the fact that heroin is often known
- as horse on the street. Drug experts called the FBI's
- penetration of a tightly knit Asian drug operation a major coup.
-
-
-