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be made the infamous head of the Genovese family.
    Early in his career, James Hunt hooked up with a partner. His name was Arthur Mendelson, a quiet, unassuming man but as tough asrusted barbed wire. Together, Hunt and Mendelson were an extremely effective combination. Both World War II veterans who had been wounded in battle, the pair became known as “Death and Destruction” throughout the agency. James Hunt was also known as “Jim Hurt,” for when perps tangled with Hunt, defied him, got tough with him, they were, inevitably, hurt. Jim’s reputation grew by leaps and bounds. He became one of the most respected and revered men in the history of the FBN, which by that point had been renamed the BNDD (Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs). As the battle to keep illegal drugs out of the country, out of the hands of the weak and needy, out of the hands of the addicts intensified, the BNDD was expanded by Richard Nixon in 1973 and renamed yet again: the Drug Enforcement Administration, better known as the DEA. The DEA was well funded, focused, and had the support of both parties. Any politician who wasn’t supportive of the war on drugs would be committing political suicide. Both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans lined up behind and supported the DEA.
    Here, for the first time, was an agency whose sole purpose was stopping the importation of drugs, the sale of drugs, the distribution of drugs. This was no easy task, and the amounts of money at stake were colossal. For the most part, the men and women of the DEA were straight shooters, but the temptation to steal was great. There would be, sometimes, millions of dollars in crates and paper bags there for the taking. There, too, would be hundreds of pounds of cocaine, heroin, tons of marijuana, all tempting agents who had mortgages, often struggling to pay the bills, feed their families. However, compared to police departments in large cities across the country and other federal agencies, the DEA garnered a very good reputation.
    It was their job to extinguish the firestorm of drug abuse that had spread across the country over the last several years. It was no longer a disenfranchised group of society that delved into drugs—musicians, blacks, those on the down-and-out. Now drugs were becoming popular, indeed fashionable. As the appeal of drugs increased, so did thedemand for them. Bold men with bold plans, unafraid of the punishment, unafraid of being arrested, saw the opportunity to get rich and went for it.
    One of the more notorious of these individuals was one Frank “Superfly” Lucas, a large, strapping black man from the South, by far the most successful, dangerous drug dealer in New York—indeed, in America. He was cagey and surrounded himself with killers and good attorneys. He also killed anyone he thought might be an informer before they ever had a chance to talk. He managed to develop a trusted relationship with the Gambino crime family. They supplied him with all the heroin he could sell. The Gambinos, in turn, secured the heroin from the Bonanno crime family. In January of 1975, Frank Lucas finally went down. James Hunt helped orchestrate and put together the extensive investigation against Lucas and was there the blistering cold night Lucas was arrested at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey.
    Busts like those of Lucas and Gigante helped Hunt rise to be second in command of the DEA’s office in New York, but there was always more work to do. More dealers to catch, more people who belonged behind bars. For every Frank Lucas who’d been caught, there were a dozen others waiting in the shadows to take his place.

CHAPTER FIVE
THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE
    T hough he had become one of the most talented lawmen in the country, Jim Hunt Sr. always remembered a valuable lesson he’d learned from his father: to not bring his work home to his wife and three kids in Cambria Heights, Queens. James