1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,520 (sirens). 2 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:43,280 ♪ ♪ 3 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:51,280 MAN (over TV): Shake this square world and 4 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:53,040 blast off for Kicksville. 5 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:56,440 NIXON: America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. 6 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,640 MAN: Heroin destroys everything. 7 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,960 MAN: Prescribing pain pills created huge numbers of addicts. 8 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:05,760 CROWD: People die, Sacklers lie. 9 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:07,280 MAN: Opium is cash. 10 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:09,320 It's like you're growing bills on the bush. 11 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:11,480 MAN: Crime and drug abuse go hand in hand. 12 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:13,360 It's like peanut butter and jelly. 13 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:14,840 HARRIS: There's now an understanding that the 14 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:18,160 war on drugs was an abject failure. 15 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,080 MAN: You have to stop and ask yourself, how did we get here? 16 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:41,520 (helicopter whirring). 17 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:51,400 SOLDIER: Get them moving... (inaudible) is now, hurry up. 18 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,400 (explosions). 19 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,080 (gunfire). 20 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,320 (gunfire). 21 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:06,360 LEW: My friends, when they went to Vietnam, 22 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,960 they were young men. 23 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,080 They may think they're adults, but they're babies. 24 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:22,840 ♪ ♪ 25 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,400 SOLDIER: Come on, get them out of here. 26 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:29,520 LEW: You're going to a foreign country where you realize, 27 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,680 people are trying to kill you just because of who you are. 28 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,160 And when they came back from Vietnam, they were different 29 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,360 people and they came back to escape, you know, 30 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,280 the fears that they had, would use drugs. 31 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,040 (chatter). 32 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:11,840 And in New York during that time, 33 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:14,600 all roads lead to Harlem. 34 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,040 People went to Harlem to get heroin. 35 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:28,240 It was like The Night of the Living Dead and you'll see 36 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,040 burned out buildings, 37 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,160 you'll see somebody with their hands 38 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,160 two times the size of what they normally are. 39 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:41,320 Heroin destroys everything and it was just devastating 40 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:44,960 for me to see that these were all young men, 41 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:47,440 but their lives were ruined forever. 42 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:51,800 It changed the course of my life. 43 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:59,200 I said, I can join DEA and my mission will be to go out 44 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:03,200 and get the guys that destroyed my friends. 45 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:07,800 It became personal to me to get the people at the top. 46 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:27,360 ♪ ♪ 47 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,400 FRANCINE: What I know about my dad's upbringing is that 48 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,080 my grandmother and my grandfather, they lived 49 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:39,440 in the south, they were poor Black people. 50 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:46,320 They picked cotton in the cotton fields and my father 51 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,280 had to do some of that and my uncles as well. 52 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,440 They were extremely poor. 53 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:03,160 When he was very young, he had a cousin that 54 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,480 recklessly eyeballed a white woman. 55 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:12,000 Recklessly eyeballing means looking at a white woman and 56 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,240 as a consequence, 57 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:16,920 the KKK came to the house 58 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:19,920 and murdered his cousin, 59 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,040 (fire crackling) 60 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,160 (chanting) 61 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,840 and my father was age six. 62 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,880 (fire crackling) 63 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:40,400 If the world and the environment that you grow up in 64 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:45,800 is a cruel world, then that can most definitely change 65 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:49,040 the way that you go about things in your life. 66 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,360 (screaming). 67 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:20,640 DICKIE: Wow. 68 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:44,360 DICKIE: You know what I'm saying. 69 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,760 LEW: Frank went to Bumpy and said, can you help me 70 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:00,080 get started in the heroin business? 71 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,400 LEW: Frank's was a typical street operation in Harlem. 72 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:16,720 He'd get a large amount of wholesale heroin, 73 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,960 then they cut the heroin with street distribution. 74 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,800 LEW: Lucas was a very smart guy, very cunning. 75 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:36,960 He saw there was a market to sell heroin 76 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:41,040 and capitalized on market conditions. 77 00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:03,160 ♪ ♪ 78 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:16,960 Frank was the guy that had several cars, 79 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:19,640 he had property throughout the United States. 80 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:24,360 So, he was amassing a strong income from selling narcotics. 81 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,000 FRANCINE: My father was always well dressed and 82 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,760 I just think about all the poor chinchillas that died 83 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,880 to make that coat, that's really what comes to mind. 84 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:51,160 (laughs) 85 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:26,680 LEW: Frank was getting his heroin from the Italian mafia. 86 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:37,440 DICKIE: No. 87 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,360 ♪ ♪ 88 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:19,320 RON: Ike Atkinson was born in 1925 in Goldsboro. 89 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,840 It's a small southern town in North Carolina, very rural. 90 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:29,000 It was segregated. 91 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:36,560 He made his mind up that he would leave Goldsboro 92 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:39,160 when the war broke out. 93 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:43,080 It was very difficult for a Black soldier to rise in rank, 94 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,560 but he managed to rise all the way to second lieutenant, 95 00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:51,120 which was quite an amazing feat. 96 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:55,320 DAN: Ike was extremely proud of his military career. 97 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,760 He felt like the military was his family, friends. 98 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:02,360 RON: Ike made friends everywhere, you know? 99 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:04,760 He was such a likable person. 100 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:09,560 People gravitated to him and they became part of this circle. 101 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:13,840 In 1963, Ike Atkinson left the military. 102 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,960 He was retired. 103 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,720 He could have done anything he wanted. 104 00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:38,480 DAN: Ike and I both arrived in Bangkok in 1966. 105 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,880 Bangkok had a lot going on, 106 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,320 but we were going specifically to gamble. 107 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:52,040 Ike and I bonded over gambling. 108 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,840 I tilted the odds in his favor. 109 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:59,840 Ike marked cars and he uh, switched decks and 110 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:02,360 some people might call that cheating. 111 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:16,680 There were thousands of Americans in Bangkok every week. 112 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,640 It was time off from Vietnam. 113 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,880 RON: Any Black GI, pretty well, that served in Vietnam 114 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:28,600 during that period ended up in Jack's American Star Bar, 115 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,240 which became famous. 116 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,880 CHARLES: I was told that Jack's American Star Bar had 117 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:39,000 the best soul music, soul food and soul sisters, 118 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,280 Thai soul sisters of course, in Bangkok. 119 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:49,560 DAN: Herman Jackson, aka Jack, was a long-time friend 120 00:13:49,560 --> 00:13:52,840 of Ike Atkinson in the military. 121 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,680 And every week they'd have a big card game with big money. 122 00:13:59,080 --> 00:14:00,560 We made some thousands. 123 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:03,200 That was, you know, that was a lot of money. 124 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:06,440 RON: Ike could have spent the rest of his life gambling and 125 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,600 making a lot of money and avoiding trouble with the law, 126 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:16,200 but he was a risk taker. 127 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:23,760 DAN: Jack had been there and had a Thai girlfriend and 128 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:27,680 that girlfriend knew this guy, Papa san. 129 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:31,760 Papa san had his contacts to get heroin. 130 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,920 CHARLES: Bangkok was the gateway for heroin into the 131 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,760 international markets. 132 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,640 The heroin was actually originating in what's called 133 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:50,480 the golden triangle of Burma, Thailand and Laos. 134 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:55,920 The golden triangle produced China White. 135 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,720 China White heroin was very pure. 136 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:03,520 $5,000 a kilo. 137 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,480 That's what the going price was for heroin in Bangkok and 138 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,680 they would sell for $100,000 in the states. 139 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,680 RON: And Ike said, we can make a fortune on it. 140 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:26,680 (helicopter whirring). 141 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:39,600 It was uh, genius. 142 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:41,480 It had never been tried before. 143 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,440 Ike would recruit soldiers out of the American Star Bar that 144 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:48,880 were going back to the US. 145 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:52,600 So, they would come in for a little bit of fun and 146 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,000 he would work them. 147 00:15:57,880 --> 00:15:59,800 CHARLES: As I understand it, many of them had been cheated 148 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,400 at card games, got into debt to Atkinson and 149 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,040 Atkinson would tell them, hey, I'll forgive your debt, 150 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:08,920 just take this bag back for me. 151 00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:14,960 They came up with this idea of the AWOL bag. 152 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,840 Dan Burch built in a false bottom for the placement of 153 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:22,320 two kilos of heroin. 154 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,920 DAN: If you open this up and you look all in here, 155 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:26,800 you don't see anything. 156 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,480 100% foolproof. 157 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,760 Ike loved that false bottom. 158 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,480 CHARLES: As well as recruiting couriers that were carrying 159 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:43,280 heroin back for him, they came up with another way to be able 160 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:46,040 to smuggle heroin back to the states. 161 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,400 They recruited, through these card games, some people that 162 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,360 worked at the army postal office. 163 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,520 They would mail AWOL bags packed into boxed to 164 00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:00,320 addresses of people who were totally unrelated. 165 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,800 Someone would go by the house and retrieve it from 166 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,080 the person who it had been addressed to. 167 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:13,080 Atkinson had access to military transportation, 168 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:17,080 to the army post office system to hundreds if not thousands of 169 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:20,520 GI's that were moving back and forth to the states. 170 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,080 They subverted the US military facilities and 171 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,480 personnel for their own greed. 172 00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:54,560 DAN: Goldsboro was Ike's hometown, just a little, 173 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,840 small, sleepy town. 174 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,440 You have Seymour Johnson out there, which is, you know, 175 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,920 a big base, 176 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,040 but you wouldn't think that millions of dollars of drugs 177 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,760 were flowing through there. 178 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:46,600 RON: Ike reached out to Lucas. 179 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:48,560 He saw a money making opportunity because Frank was 180 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:52,480 a big dealer and Lucas had heard of Ike, mainly because 181 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:54,800 the heroin that Ike was selling was better quality 182 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,680 than what the Italian mafia was selling. 183 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:01,800 So, Ike, when he went to see him, he thought he was gonna 184 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:07,400 meet him in this big mansion and all that, 185 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:13,880 and here he was holed up in a small apartment 186 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,280 somewhere in New York City. 187 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,760 He was hiding from the mafia. 188 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:23,480 He owed the mafia a lot of money, 189 00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:27,400 but Ike, you know, he loved taking risks. 190 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,200 So, Ike said, why not? 191 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:31,360 It could work. 192 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,400 So, from that meeting, a relationship developed. 193 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:44,680 CHARLES: Atkinson had a better product and it enabled 194 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:49,400 Frank Lucas to break from the mafia and start buying his 195 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:53,160 heroin from Southeast Asia through Leslie Atkinson. 196 00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:06,760 RON: You know, it wouldn't be like, just a couple of kilos 197 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,040 it would be like, hundreds of kilos, 198 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:16,160 and the only way he could do that was to use 199 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,400 a bigger shipping method. 200 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:31,160 ♪ ♪ 201 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:17,160 ♪ ♪ 202 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:27,840 RON: Ike loved teakwood. 203 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,840 He said, why can't I use teakwood furniture to help 204 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:34,240 ship the drugs and they started building furniture 205 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,440 to hold heroin. 206 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,560 LEW: The furniture is so large that you can do secret compartments. 207 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:46,560 I mean, anything that you're making, you can make to hold drugs. 208 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:06,720 ♪ ♪ 209 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,200 Brand names marks your product. 210 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:23,760 It's just like going into a store and you want Gucci, 211 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:25,360 you want Louis Vuitton, 212 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:29,160 Blue Magic was a brand name that Frank used 213 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:31,760 to sell heroin in Harlem. 214 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,280 FRANCINE: I remember him as a very incredibly loving father. 215 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,040 He would come home, throw himself on the floor, play. 216 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,000 He would always show up with something sweet for me. 217 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,480 So, you know, I honestly thought my dad was a candy man. 218 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:10,080 He absolutely loved restaurants and I would get to come along. 219 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,520 I really did get the idea that my dad was somebody special 220 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:20,920 because I do remember just being treated so well. 221 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:33,320 There is one specific toy that I remember very well, 222 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:35,920 it's a kangaroo. 223 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,360 That's where the clothes were supposed to go, 224 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,000 but there was a lot of money in there. 225 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,400 My dad, I don't know who, used to put a lot of cash... 226 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,360 it was full of money. 227 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,160 What I've heard from my parents and what I've heard 228 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,080 from other people in the family, the inside of the 229 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,240 walls were lined with money. 230 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,240 I would always see my mom just going into random places 231 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:05,920 and pulling money out. 232 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,240 It was everywhere, just everywhere. 233 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:24,920 LEW: So, all drug dealers play a dangerous game. 234 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,760 Frank Lucas played the odds and knows how to handle risk. 235 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,560 Frank short changed the mafia. 236 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:45,600 By late '74, he owed them over $300,000 in drug money. 237 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,680 VOICE (over GPS): At the light, turn left onto Royall Avenue. 238 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,760 STEVE: We would get intelligence reports periodically and 239 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,560 I recall getting an intelligence briefing about 240 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:28,760 Leslie Ike Atkinson and his heroin distribution and importation. 241 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:37,320 I am Steven G. Surratt. 242 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:41,320 I was assigned as a drug agent working narcotics investigation, 243 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:43,880 reside in Goldsboro. 244 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,160 I was trying to piece together a picture of the network that 245 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,760 Ike Atkinson was involved with, 246 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,040 and we routinely would run surveillance on 247 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,400 associates of Atkinson 248 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,120 and one of which 249 00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:09,200 was an individual named Howard Rose. 250 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,000 He had a mobile home southeast of Goldsboro that he stayed at 251 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,280 when he came into town. 252 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:25,080 Sometime in late 1974, we observed him take one of those 253 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,640 bags out of the house and put it in the trunk of a car and 254 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:33,200 drive over, very cautiously drive to Ike's house 255 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:37,040 across Goldsboro and back in under the carport 256 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,600 and raised the trunk. 257 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,600 It was a black AWOL bag. 258 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,720 Our suspicion was that they were being used to courier heroin. 259 00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,520 At the time, suspicion was about as strong as we had. 260 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,200 ♪ ♪ 261 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:24,120 LEW: During the 70s, DEA was focused on 262 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:28,280 heroin trafficking and going after the dealers in Harlem, 263 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:31,160 also going after their source of supply in the mafia. 264 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,960 One of these mafia guys, Verzino, got locked up. 265 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:50,560 Verzino wants to cut a deal, he doesn't want to go to jail. 266 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:53,240 So, he starts to cooperate. 267 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:08,080 He identifies Frank as one of the guys he's selling heroin to. 268 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,920 He also has fiscal ledgers, which has Franks name and 269 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,920 notations of the amount of money Frank owes and the 270 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:19,880 amount of heroin he was given. 271 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,800 Verzino's testimony and these documents were 272 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,280 powerful evidence to indict Frank. 273 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:45,720 (sirens). 274 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:50,720 (sirens). 275 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:57,440 (sirens). 276 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,040 We have about 20 law enforcement officers. 277 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,480 They had not only the revolvers, but at that time, 278 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,520 in the 70s, we had a lot of shotguns. 279 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:14,960 FRANCINE: January, 1975, it was just a typical morning 280 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,840 and as I remember, chaos exploded everywhere. 281 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,760 LEW: You have to come in hard and secure the premise. 282 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:33,120 So, they probably came in with the revolvers and the shotguns 283 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,200 to let people know they meant business, going upstairs, 284 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,040 downstairs to the basement. 285 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:43,240 FRANCINE: All I remember is screaming. 286 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:47,720 Screaming and just, I'm feeling very afraid, 287 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,040 very scared. 288 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,920 My mother was hiding things in my diaper. 289 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,520 Maybe she was hiding money because she threw some 290 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,920 money out the window. 291 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,120 LEW: Somebody notices Frank's wife throwing 292 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,080 suitcases outside the window. 293 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,160 They notice that there's a large amount of money there. 294 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,920 FRANCINE: And at some point I start to feel scared for my father. 295 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,920 I think it's because maybe at some point he was restrained. 296 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:21,600 In an instant, everything just fell apart. 297 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,800 It was never the same after that. 298 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,320 REPORTER (over TV): Federal agents displayed the evidence a 299 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,000 regional headquarters for the Drug Enforcement Administration 300 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,120 $584,683. 301 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,520 It was seized they said, in Teaneck, New Jersey 302 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,880 at the home of Frank Lucas, a so called big dealer in 303 00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,200 the wholesale narcotics division of organized crime. 304 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,400 It's charged that the Frank Lucas gang sold large amounts 305 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,600 of heroin in Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester. 306 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:16,440 ♪ ♪ 307 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,760 RON: United States decided to get out of Vietnam 308 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,960 and of course that affected Ike, too. 309 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,440 They closed down Jack's American Star Bar 'cause 310 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,800 there weren't any service men coming from Vietnam. 311 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,240 The people he had working for him weren't reliable, 312 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,680 drunk most of the time and becoming more difficult to work with 313 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,640 and so, his empire was becoming dysfunctional. 314 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,080 The writing was on the wall. 315 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,840 His drug empire was starting to unravel. 316 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:10,400 ♪ ♪ 317 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:14,960 CHARLES: As the war in Vietnam is winding down, Atkinson saw 318 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,720 that he, he needed to get more actively involved. 319 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:38,160 It was in a house in Bangkok and they were loading 320 00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:42,240 AWOL bags with heroin and one of his band of brothers was 321 00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:45,600 having trouble, kinda struggling with getting it 322 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,760 in the bag and Atkinson grabbed it and said, hey, 323 00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,040 let me show you how to do this. 324 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,240 RON: He saw that they needed some help and being a good boss, 325 00:34:56,240 --> 00:34:58,600 he decided to pitch in. 326 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:04,200 DAN: He wanted to be sure that the false bottom was working 327 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,720 and he just bang, with his hand. 328 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,600 CHARLES: That particular AWOL bag, they load it with some 329 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:25,680 old clothes, put it in a box and mailed it back to the 330 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:31,120 aunt of some associate of theirs in North Carolina. 331 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:51,160 ♪ ♪ 332 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,200 Someone would go by the house and retrieve it from 333 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,040 the person who it had been addressed to. 334 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:04,680 STEVE: In late January, 1975, Mary Ethel Waters, 335 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,840 an elderly Black lady, received a large parcel package. 336 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:15,600 CHARLES: This particular woman, when she got it, 337 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,880 thought it was a bomb and called the police. 338 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:25,120 STEVE: And when they opened the package, they found two 339 00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:29,280 AWOL bags based on our surveillance. 340 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,440 Well, I immediately suspected that there was a link between 341 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,920 those bags and Leslie Ike Atkinson. 342 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:44,520 And so, they went into the bags and discovered that there 343 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:48,280 was a false bottom and underneath were 344 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,120 two plastic bags, each containing a white powder, 345 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,640 a large quantity of suspected heroin. 346 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,040 Everyone was very excited, 347 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,920 but we just had to find the link between 348 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,480 that and Leslie Ike Atkinson. 349 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,400 We were driving to Raleigh with, you know, 350 00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,400 over $1 million worth of suspected heroin. 351 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:16,800 It was after dark I remember, when we got there, 352 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,040 and we turned it over to the chemist. 353 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,840 It showed that it was 100%, pure heroin. 354 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,160 That was the largest seizure of heroin that had been made 355 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,080 in North Carolina and it had occurred there in Goldsboro 356 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,520 and we knew that it was only a piece of the pie, 357 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:41,000 that it was just a sample of what he had been doing over the years. 358 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:50,560 And this package also was processed for any latent fingerprints. 359 00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,200 I recall being in the sheriff's department when 360 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,520 the call came in, they had made Ike's palm print. 361 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,160 We were elated. 362 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:09,160 This was the link we were looking for. 363 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,080 But we could not arrest him at the time because he was 364 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:25,200 out of the country in Bangkok, Thailand. 365 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,120 We felt that Ike would be coming back at some time 366 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,240 in the near future. 367 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,280 We had no idea when that would be. 368 00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:46,280 (chatter). 369 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:01,480 (chatter). 370 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:20,320 STEVE: Ike Atkinson actually flew, on this occasion, 371 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,360 on commercial aircraft. 372 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,960 We had set up surveillance to positively identify him when 373 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,240 he came off the plane, 374 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:47,440 (sirens) 375 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:49,040 and followed him to his residence 376 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,520 there in Goldsboro. 377 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,440 When Ike was arrested, he was very calm and 378 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,480 his demeanor really didn't change. 379 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,600 He took the plea and he was sentenced to a total of 380 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:16,280 19 years in federal custody, 381 00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:23,600 and he accepted it at that point, but he didn't stop. 382 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:40,560 ♪ ♪ 383 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,520 CHARLES: There were rumors that Atkinson was actually 384 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,920 still running the operation from prison. 385 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,280 His family was probably visiting him at prison and 386 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,320 may have been taking the orders from Atkinson. 387 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:11,720 My office had been working with the US military. 388 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,800 So, they initiated an operation to inspect the 389 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,680 furniture of these GI's being shipped back, 390 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:28,760 and one of the inspectors drilled a hole in some 391 00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:31,880 bedroom furniture, 392 00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:35,680 and out came heroin. 393 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,080 It turned out to be 100 pounds, 394 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:41,640 I mean, an incredible amount of heroin. 395 00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:57,280 The only time I ever met Leslie Atkinson 396 00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,680 was at his prosecution. 397 00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,280 He was polite to me, called me sir, but this was the 398 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,000 con man that he was. 399 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:08,560 We put him out of business. 400 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,480 So, I was feeling pretty good in those days. 401 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:33,320 LEW: Frank Lucas, when faced with 70 years imprisonment 402 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,200 began to cooperate. 403 00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:38,800 Frank's cooperation lead to investigations and 404 00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:42,360 arrest of over 100 people. 405 00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:46,640 He got his sentence reduced to time served, 406 00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:53,360 but they wind up re-arresting Frank 407 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,240 for selling a small amount of heroin. 408 00:42:55,240 --> 00:42:58,320 It was just like he had the criminal mindset and he just 409 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,640 couldn't break away from it and of course, he got caught. 410 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,040 RON: Ike Atkinson shipped, according to the DEA over 411 00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:23,080 1,000 kilos of heroin and that's a lot of poison. 412 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:28,200 CHARLES: I don't think Atkinson had a conscience or 413 00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:32,440 he wouldn't have caused all the harm that he did to our country. 414 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,320 FRANCINE: You have to put blinders on to be able to do 415 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:47,000 that and not want to see what's taking place. 416 00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:51,240 I just don't understand it to be honest with you. 417 00:43:51,240 --> 00:43:52,480 Captioned by Cotter Media Group.