The DEA agents were warned to be extra careful if they wanted their agency to give them $80,000 in cash to make the biggest Asian heroin buy on the west coast. Major dealers from Thailand were trying to get a foothold in the lucrative heroin market that the Mexican cartels controlled. The DEA knew that they needed to disrupt this new source of deadly heroin. The DEA agents had arranged for a transaction to occur in a restaurant parking lot east of downtown LA.
Two of the agents met the Asian dealer in the restaurant where the details of the deal were worked out. The dealer was insistent on seeing the $80,000 in cash. The agents indicated that they had the money in a satchel in their car in the parking lot. Words alone weren’t enough to satisfy the dealer since he wanted to visually see the money. As a result, the agents escorted the dealer out to their car and the one agent and the dealer got into the backseat.
The agent pulled the satchel out and unzipped it so the dealer could see the bulging stacks of dollar bills. The agent kept tight control of the satchel and only permitted the dealer to glance inside. The agents flashed the money so the dealer could see it was all there. In less than a minute the agent rezipped the bag and placed it on his other side. The dealer nodded and said, “Okay it’s on.” At that point the dealer gave directions to the other agent, who was driving, where to go in order to pick up the large quantity of heroin.
In the car was an undercover DEA agent who was driving and another agent acting as the shotgun passenger. In the backseat was the agent on the left holding the bag of money and on the right passenger side sat the dealer. The three agents felt confident that they had the situation under control and shortly they would be looking at kilos of heroin.
What could possibly go wrong? As the car approached the city of Pasadena, they turned down a residential street. Abruptly the dealer told the driver to pull over to the curb because the heroin was being stored in the adjacent residence. The dealer swiftly exited the agents’ car saying he was going to get the dope. All three agents stayed seat belted in the car. All of a sudden, the dealer pulled out a gun and started firing at the agents who were mere sitting ducks in their car.
The dealer reached into the car and grabbed the satchel of $80,000 cash. With that in hand the dealer ran to a car parked behind the agents’ car and jumped in. As the dealer and his companions sped away in their car. Thus, began one of the wildest police pursuits of all times. It all ended in a shoot-out leaving two DEA agents dead and two dealers dead. This book tells the incredible story of what transpired over the next 30 years as a result of this particular narcotic deal that went terribly wrong. You will be shocked and surprised what happened to everyone involved.
