Smedley caught up with Chai and persuaded him to come over the next day to talk with Thornton. But Chai had another surprise in store for Thornton. Smedley told Thornton that Chai wanted $4,900, not $4,100 as previously agreed, for each kilo of heroin Thornton bought from him. Moreover, Chai was demanding that Thornton pay that amount not only for future shipments but also retroactively for the Brown shipment that was about to go out.

  “He can’t do that,” Thornton exclaimed. “It will screw up our finances.”

  Thornton asked Smedley to intercede with Chai so he could get the operation back on track. But as Thornton later explained; “Jimmy wouldn’t talk. He wouldn’t say anything. He just didn’t feel like talking to nobody (sic). When I would say something to him, he would snap.”

  Thornton was frustrated and concerned about the developments at perhaps the most critical time in the Atkinson drug ring’s history. It sounded crazy to Thornton when he thought about it, but it looked like Chai and Smedley were working together to screw up the operation. He also suspected that Chai and Smedley were planning to steal Ike’s money. Thornton needed to talk with Ike to let him know about the disturbing turn of events.

  IN JULY 1975, Thornton returned to the U.S. to get further instructions from Ike. Thornton’s plane landed at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii, and he went through Customs for what he thought would be a routine check. But when one of the Customs agents saw Thornton’s ID, he asked Thornton to step out of line and to follow him to a room in the back of the airport terminal. Thornton had to strip while Customs officials took the papers out of his AWOL bag and photocopied them. That was it. No interrogation, no probing questions. He was escorted back to the plane and allowed to continue his journey. Thornton did not know what happened, but he decided to go to the bathroom, take the papers that the Customs officials photocopied out of the AWOL bag and burn them.

  Thornton’s plane landed at March Air Force Base in California and he immediately flew from there cross-country to North Carolina, arriving in Goldsboro around August 1st. Thornton wrote a letter and had it delivered to Ike. In the letter, Thornton described the problems he was having in Bangkok. Thornton wrote that it seemed to him that Chai and Smedley were conspiring together against the best interests of Ike’s drug ring.

  Ike sent six “notes” to Thornton, five of which he was to deliver to Smedley and Chai. In the letter to Thornton, Ike told him that as soon as his job was complete in Thailand, Thornton was to return to the U.S. to control the stateside operation. A second note to Smedley told him to send his maid, Missy, to the United States to work at Ike’s house in Goldsboro. The third note informed Chai and Smedley that Thornton was in charge of the operation. A fourth note warned Smedley to “take care of business the way you are supposed to and stay low because the Feds were looking for you.” The fifth accused Smedley of being the cause of all the heat on Thornton. In the sixth note to Chai and Smedley, Ike warned: “If any of my stuff comes up missing, somebody’s ass is going to hang.”

  Thornton then went to the Thai embassy to get his visa stamped. He returned to Thailand about August 4th.

  Thornton gave Ike’s notes to Smedley and Chai, and after they read them, Thornton made sure the notes were burned. He then moved to exert his leadership. “Do you have the Myrick shipment together?” Thornton asked Chai.

  “No, but it will be ready in three or four days,” Chai said.

  Have you bought any more dope for the Myrick shipment?” Thornton asked Smedley.

  “Yeah, I did,” Smedley said.

  Thornton revealed that he had promised Myrick a $3,000 advance, but he hadn’t seen him and so hadn’t given him the money. “Could you pay Myrick off?” Thornton asked Smedley.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Smedley said. Thornton was satisfied. It seemed as if Chai and Jimmy had gotten the message.

  THORNTON WAS ALSO waiting for an additional $10,000 to arrive from the States. Lorenzo Martin, a member of Ike’s drug ring who was working at the Army Post Office (APO) in Bangkok, would receive the money. But in an odd coincidence a junior clerk at the APO who worked for Martin had the same last name as Martin. Moreover, the clerk had a brother in Washington, DC, with the same initials as Lorenzo Martin (“LM”). The junior clerk had written his brother and asked him to send him some 45-RPM records. The money that Thornton was expecting arrived at the APO in a box that looked a lot like the size of the box that his 45 RPMs would come in from DC. The junior clerk almost fainted when he opened the box that he thought his brother had sent him and instead found $10,000 in crisp $100 bills. Fortunately, Lorenzo Martin discovered the screw-up before it could get out of control, and he paid the junior clerk $100 to hand over the money and keep quiet. Thornton used the $10,000 to buy two “joints” (kilos of heroin) from Chai.

  IN JULY 1975, Smedley sent five pieces of furniture (two small end tables, a cabinet, a buffet and a dresser) to Myrick’s house. In August, a Thai-Chinese gentleman who called himself “Vichai” delivered a sixth-piece of furniture, a wooden cabinet, to Myrick’s house in a blue van. Vichai was an alias for Luchai “Chai” Ruviwat. Myrick helped Chai take the cabinet off the van and into the house.

  Valerie Myrick, Jasper’s wife, was impressed with the furniture’s beauty, and she kidded Smedley, saying that if he was not going to pick up the furniture, she would keep it for herself. Smedley was not amused. “You can’t keep it,” he said. “There is no place too far for me not to come and get it.”

  Dennis Dillon–Assistant U.S. Attorney from Eastern District of New York who prosecuted Richard Patch and Dennis Hart.

  Rufus Edmisten, the North Carolina State Attorney General and later North Carolina governor, oversaw investigation of Ike Atkinson in North Carolina.

  Paul Cooper–Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the Denver office who successfully prosecuted William Herman Jackson in the 1972 Denver heroin case.

  Dennis “Mike” Nerney, the San Francisco, California-based Assistant U.S. Attorney who assisted DEA agents Charles Lutz and Lionel Stewart in the Luchai drug trafficking investigation and successfully prosecuted Luchai in San Francisco.

  Luchai’s bust in San Francisco was big news.

  Bangkok based reporter John McBeth (right) talks to Jasper Myrick (center) soon after his arrest in the teakwood connection investigation.

  Douglas Howard–Deputy Director, U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Center in Fort Lee, Virginia, who worked at Tan Son Nhut Mortuary in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

  Joe Cheshire–Raleigh, North Carolina lawyer who represented Ike’s brother Edward Atkinson against drug trafficking charges.

  DEA special agents Chuck Lutz and Lionel Stewart received the 1976 Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for the Leslie Atkinson / Luchai Ruviwat investigation, the highest award presented to Federal agents. Pictured on the day of the ceremony, from left to right: Chuck Lutz, DEA Administrator Peter Bensinger and Lionel Stewart.

  Michael Schwartz, U.S. Customs agent who investigated William Herman Jackson and the Denver Heroin connection.

  Cuyler Windam, a retired North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) agent who worked on the Atkinson investigation in the 1970s.

  Steve Suratt, a retired North Carolina SBI agent who worked the Atkinson investigation in North Carolina in the 1970s.

  Bill Slaughter, a retired SBI agent who worked the Atkinson investigation in North Carolina in the 1970s.

  Sukree Sukreepirom (top), Thai trafficker who was arrested with 25 kilograms of pure heroin on March 22, 1975 in Bangkok, and Hoi se Wan (bottom), Malaysian trafficker who was arrested with Sukree. This bust was the first time the DEA used the Pan Am undercover scam it adapted for Lionel Stewart’s undercover identity with Luchai Ruviwat, and again with Preecha Leyarak.

  Some of the money confiscated from a bust of the Ike Atkinson drug trafficking organization.

  Don Ashton U.S. DEA Special Agent In Charge of the Wilmington, North Carolina office in the early and mid 1970s. Ashton was “field commander” of CENTAC 9, a DEA headquarter-based operation that coordinated the worldwide investigation of Ike Atkinson’s international drug network.

  Charles Overton–Retired North Carolina SBI agent who worked the Atkinson investigation in North Carolina in the 1970s.

  Dan Burch, a member of Ike’s band of brothers, sits with a girlfriend while he was in Germany.

  Heroin discovered in teakwood furniture during investigation of Jasper Myrick’s residence in Bangkok.

  “The Great Heroin Bust.”

  Ike’s prison photos

  Ike in prison with his buddy Lorenzo Bowers.

  Ike Atkinson as he looks today.

  Ike sitting in a Hardees restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina.

  Dan Burch and Ike Atkinson, still buddies after all these years.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Sting

  IN LATE 1974 Ike Atkinson had made a serious mistake by leaving his palm print on a drug shipment sent through the U.S. Postal Service from Bangkok to Goldsboro, North Carolina. In June 1975, that “mistake” got Ike a 19-year sentence in a Federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina. While Ike hoped to be out of jail in no more than 18 months, it was a good bet he would remain behind bars much longer. Still, he remained in charge of his drug ring. Ike directed his subordinates from prison to smuggle even larger shipments of heroin using teakwood furniture with specially made false bottoms and using the “services” of military personnel who, as the U.S. military decreased its Southeast Asia presence, were moving from Thailand back to the U.S. after completing their tour of duty. While it was true that Ike’s drug ring was experiencing personality and organizational problems, evident in the clashes between Thornton on one side and Luchai “Chai“ Ruviwat and Jimmy Smedley on the other, law enforcement officials were still seemingly light years away from taking Ike’s drug ring down.

  Chuck Lutz, who headed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Atkinson drug ring investigation in Thailand, had re-directed three Thai undercover surveillance agents to follow members of Atkinson’s organization still operating in Thailand. “We had bought them motorcycles so they could move unnoticed among the thousands of motorbikes and gather intelligence,” Lutz said. The surveillance team was able to document the movements of the Atkinson drug ring, but the authorities did not have the intelligence, let alone the evidence, to make any arrests. In February 1975, the investigation was still an open case. While the DEA was intent on taking down the drug ring, the investigation in Bangkok was essentially “dead in the water.”

  “I was writing up the surveillance reports, hoping to keep the case active, but I didn’t have the informants who could provide information on the group’s activities or help us to infiltrate them,” Lutz recalled. “We were on the outside looking in. I was also busy working on several other cases that monopolized much of my time. Then I got a call that changed everything.”

  The call came from Lionel Stewart, a Black DEA agent, who, by all accounts, was one of the best undercover agents in the Administration’s history. Stewart was a retired Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Warrant Officer, who, like Ike, had lied about his age to get into the military service at age 17. Both served in the Korean conflict, but unlike Ike, Stewart saw combat, having received a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal. Stewart took advantage of the opportunity offered him while in the Service to earn a degree in military science from the University of Omaha in Nebraska. In 1975 when Stewart retired from the Army and joined the DEA, he was about 37-years old, a lot older than many of the DEA agents with whom he worked and even some of those who supervised him.

  Stewart had a charismatic presence, according to DEA agents who served with him. Muscular, of medium build, with an engaging smile, Stewart wore a short Afro, which was in vogue among many African American men at the time, and he looked as if he could step into the role of a leading character in one of the many so called “blaxploitation” movies of the time, such as “Shaft,” “Superfly” or “Black Caesar.”

  “He was a remarkable person who rose from the hood in New York City to the highest levels of the DEA,” recalled Lutz, who worked with Stewart on the Atkinson investigation and became a close friend. “He had a very engaging personality and could talk a hungry dog off a meat wagon.” Paul Wallace, a retired special DEA agent who was Stewart’s partner in the San Francisco office in the 1970s, recalled Stewart as being “a Type-A personality who was always on the go and loved undercover work.”

  Stewart mixed with all kinds of company. “He could speak like a street thug, but at the same time, he was cultured and articulate,” recalled Mike Nerney, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco who worked with Stewart on several drug trafficking cases. “As an undercover agent, he could do anything and everything.”

  Stewart was as good at the more humdrum task of completing office paper work as he was in the field. “To get wiretaps approved, I had to write affidavits that went on for page after page,” Wallace recalled. “They were very complicated and time consuming to do, especially for a young agent like me. But Lionel did those documents with ease. He guided me through the process until I could do them myself.”

  Stewart was one of a handful of Black agents in the DEA at the time, but he became a mentor for many DEA agents from different ethnic backgrounds. “He was respected by state and local police in the San Francisco Bay region as well,” Lutz revealed. “That was unusual for a federal agent.”

  LUTZ DIDN’T KNOW Lionel Stewart when Stewart called him in February 1975, but he listened with keen interest to what his colleague had to say. Stewart explained that he was working on a drug investigation that had a connection to Thailand, and he provided Lutz with background on the case. Four U.S. airmen turned drug traffickers (Cleophus J. Kearney, Andre W. King, Fred Neal Powell and Eugene Lemon, Jr.), who collectively became known as the “Japanese Connection,” were arrested in a scheme to smuggle $1 million worth of heroin from Thailand through Japan to the U.S. via American military bases. U.S. Navy investigators uncovered the smuggling operation when drugs started turning up on the streets of Yokosuka, a city on Tokyo Bay, and in the snack bars in the Dubuita Alley district of Tokyo. Investigators believed that as many as 70 people were involved in the drug ring.

  In an unusual move, a U.S. prosecutor went to Tokyo to take the video deposition of Thomas Adams and Thomas Gamble, two Americans involved with the Japanese Connection and already in prison convicted of violating Japanese narcotics laws. Adams and Gamble agreed to cooperate because they did not like the conditions in the prison at Yokosuka and were hoping that by testifying they could get out of the Japanese prison system early.

  “This case was unusual in a number of ways,” explained Mike Nerney. “It was the first time that the U.S. government took depositions of U.S. prisoners imprisoned outside the U.S. that were admitted as evidence in a U.S. criminal trial. It was also the first time U.S. prosecutors were able to get a conviction under 21 USC 959 for having distributed illegal drugs in another country while knowing that the intended destination for the heroin was the United States.”

  Adams and Gamble also revealed that the Japanese Connection had bought its heroin in Bangkok through a deal brokered by a man named Chai at Jack’s American Star Bar in Bangkok before it closed in 1973. According to the informants, members of the Japanese Connection were introduced to Chai through a young Black intermediary named Carl Dunlap (not his true identity), who was in his 20s, an employee of an American corporation based in Bangkok and an amateur musician who sang and played the guitar at Jack’s Bar on weekends. Sources described Dunlap as “a good kid who hung out with the wrong crowd.”

  “Dunlap later said he told the Japanese Connection guys that he had nothing to do with heroin, but they kept pushing him,” Lutz recalled. “Finally, Dunlap agreed to introduce them to Luchai Ruviwat.”

  The bottom line of the phone call—Stewart wanted to know if Lutz was interested in trying to get Dunlap to cooperate so he could put Stewart in touch with Chai. Am I interested? Lutz thought. “I would have hugged him if we were in the same room.” This could be the big break that Lutz was waiting for—a chance to penetrate the Bangkok end of the Atkinson drug ring.

  IN EARLY MARCH 1975, Lionel Stewart and Mike Nerney traveled to Bangkok to meet with Chuck Lutz. Nerney, who was known as a hard-nosed, capable prosecutor, became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco in 1971 and was assigned to the General Crimes Unit. Among other notable successes, Nerney had been a member of the team responsible for prosecuting the government’s case in the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.

  The three American law enforcement officials met at Lutz’s office in the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok to devise a game plan that would get Dunlap to cooperate. The plan began with a flimsy arrest warrant that Nerney had gotten issued against Carl Dunlap for “aiding and abetting a conspiracy.” The DEA did not have enough evidence to prosecute Dunlap in the Japanese Connection heroin case, but the warrant’s purpose was to get his attention. They needed a “safe” place to meet. American services are performed on Sathorn Road, about a mile from the U.S. Embassy. The Consul General was a friend of Lutz’s. He agreed to allow Lutz to use his office for a meeting with the man they hoped would be their ticket into the Atkinson organization.