Your Thing Is Gone But You Wanna Ride On

An international cocaine ring is busted, threatening the city’s supply of first-person party reminisces and feature articles:

A major international cocaine distribution ring has been dismantled with the seizure of $10 million worth of cocaine, officials said yesterday.

An undercover investigation dubbed “Operation Final Voyage” began when a detective from the Kings County District Attorney’s Office learned that members of an organized cocaine smuggling ring in Panama were seeking a corrupt longshoreman to help unload shipments at a New York port. Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes said the detective then posed as a longshoreman to intercept three shipments totaling 75 pounds beginning in November at Howland Hook.

“This was no nickel and dime operation,” Hynes said yesterday. “It was a remarkable seizure.”

To gauge the undercover detective’s ability to unload the narcotics without being detected, Hynes said the smugglers initially sent a Panamanian newspaper and a hat stashed aboard a container ship on Nov. 15. Three subsequent shipments containing cocaine were seized at the port on Nov. 23, Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, said Hynes, adding that the drugs were hidden so deeply in the enormous container ships that the defendants once provided a map to the detective.