December 30th, 1969

Norman was a dapper-looking man with balding hair and neatly trimmed sideburns. He had a penchant for gadgetry and intrigue..

Norman and Marie brought their drinks to the front of the lounge, settling into a VIP section enclosed with velvet drapes—a dark and cozy spot that was completely private. Maccaud pulled out an eight-ball of cocaine and dropped it on the table, a smirk on his face as he did so. Marie knelt down, sitting on her heels to bring her face closer to the low table. She pulled her mirror from her pocketbook and laid it on the table. Norman dumped out two thick lines of the powder and offered one to Marie. She pushed up from her heels, grabbed the straw Norman had just dropped, and snorted the large line. Wincing slightly, she placed the straw back down on the mirror. Norman did the same with the other line and began talking.

“Opium is grown in Turkey, where the climate, soil conditions, and cheap labor are ideal. The government uses it for medical morphine, but some of the opium is sidetracked and sold at three times the government price. We smuggle it from Turkey to Italy, where it’s clandestinely processed into heroin by some other contacts. The authorities do all they can to stop it, but we can market it in Canada and here. 

Let me give you an idea of what happens to the drug once it reaches here. Many in the city pay $20,000 for a kilogram of pure heroin. I dilute it by adding milk sugar or quinine, yielding two kilos of 50 percent purity. I sell each kilo for $16,000 profit.

Then a second person buys the two kilos of 50 percent purity, dilutes them further, and ends up with four kilos of 25 percent purity. He slices the product into 16 quarters and sells them at $6,000 each, grossing 96000 and netting 60000.

A third man buys one-quarter of a kilo for $6,000, dividing it into nice one-ounce pieces, and sells them at $1,000 each for a $3,000 profit. A fourth man pays $1,000 for an ounce of 20 percent heroin and dilutes it to 5 percent purity. An ounce contains about 300 bags, which are sold on the streets for $5 to $7 in New York and $10 to $12 in Buffalo.

And that’s why heroin is a better profit margin than marijuana; you can’t dilute pot. The risks are the same for both, as they are controlled substances, and crossing federal or state lines always falls under federal jurisdiction.
Now, we have Steve at the border from France; we just need someone to drive the car over.”