French Connection A True Account Of Cops, Narcotics, And International Conspiracy

by Moore, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781592280445
• ISBN10: 1592280447
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

With a new introduction by the author. The true, absorbing and sometimes frightening documentary of the world's most successful narcotics investigation,The French Connectionis one of the most fascinating crime accounts of our time. When New York City detectives Eddie "Popeye" Egan and his partner Sonny Grosso routinely tail Pasquale "Patsy" Fuca, after observing some wild spending at the Copacabana, they quickly realize that they are on to something really big. Patsy is not only the nephew of a mob boss on the lam but also a key negotiator in an impending delivery of narcotics from abroad. His incongruous connections are with several distinguished Frenchmen, including Jean Jehan, the director of the world's largest heroin network, and Jacques Angelvin, a star of French television. For many suspense-filled months, through opulent Manhattan nightclubs, dark tenements in Brooklyn and the Bronx, tree-lined streets of the genteel Upper East Side, and in Paris, Marseilles, and Palermo, the duel is on -- the prize 112 pounds of pure heroin, worth ninety million on the streets. Over three hundred investigators from local, state, federal, and international agencies are ultimately involved in the hours of weary surveillance, the skilled intuition, the luck -- both good and bad -- and the danger.

Author Biography

A B-17 nose gunner in WW2, at the age of nineteen, Robin Moore survived Europe to resume his education and graduated from Harvard in 1949. In the early fifties he worked as a television writer and producer, then as an executive for the Sheraton Hotel chain, under the less than patient eye of his father, who was the chairman of the board. First published in 1956, with Pitchman, he has since written more than two dozen major books -- and lost count of the minors -- including his bestselling account of training and fighting with special forces in Vietnam, The Green Berets. His latest title, The Hunt for Bin Laden: Task Force Dagger, also about U.S. special forces, was published by Random House in March 2003. He lives in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.

Excerpts

It was shortly after 2:00 A.M., Tuesday, when the agent up front in the closet heard a faint shuffle of footsteps outside. He doused the light and opened the door of his hiding place a crack, hands gripping the shotgun. The cellar door creaked open, letting in a rush of cold night air. The door closed softly. The slight scraping of feet on the cement floor sounded like two men. They were moving slowly past the paint locker, now pausing at the mouth of the passage to the rear. Suddenly shafts from two flashlights pierced the darkness. One swept the entry hall, then in a quick step one of the visitors reached up to pull the chain dangling from a ceiling bulb. Simultaneously the cellar entry was flooded with light and a voice barked: "All right! Police! Who's down there?"

There was no time for a reply, for the other officer cried: "Wait! Look out!" The two agents in the alcove were emerging from the shadows, revolvers in hand. The startled cops crouched, prepared for violence. But a sharp voice rang from the blackness of the boiler room: "Hold it, f'Christsake! We're all police officers!" In a moment, a light blinked on in the rear of the cellar, and the Narcotics Bureau's Jimmy O'Brien was advancing with his gold shield in hand.

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Excerpted from The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy by Robin Moore
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