What was the largest drug bust in Columbus’ history?

What was the largest drug bust ever in Columbus, and who made it?

The Muscogee sheriff’s office announced Wednesday it had seized 14 pounds, 7 ounces of heroin and 33 pounds, 6 ounces of methamphetamine on Alta Vista Drive. The heroin was valued at $2.6 million and the meth at more than $1.5 million.

The sheriff said it was the largest heroin and methamphetamine bust in Columbus’ history.

It is the largest by a local agency, but not the largest heroin seizure ever, because of the French Connection.

Though only older folks can recall the drug pipeline that pumped heroin from France to America’s East Coast in the 1960s and ‘70s, younger movie buffs may have seen the classic 1971 crime thriller starring Gene Hackman, playing a character based on New York police detective Eddie “Popeye” Egan.

The film’s based on a bust in 1962, when Egan and partner Sonny Grosso spearheaded an investigation that led to the NYPD’s seizing 112 pounds of heroin from France, worth about $32 million, a record at the time.

In 1965, an even larger “French Connection” bust happened here in Columbus: Federal Bureau of Narcotics agents tracking a French shipment seized 95 kilograms of heroin, according to a history of the bureau now called the Drug Enforcement Agency.

“An FBN agent stationed in Marseille alerted the Bureau to a narcotics transaction in Columbus, GA where 95 kilos of heroin were seized in 1965,” it reads. “The investigation led to the arrests of a warrant officer and a major in the U.S. Army, two French nationals, and two Mafia members residing in Miami. All were convicted in federal court and received long prison terms.”

Ninety-five kilos equal 209 pounds, outweighing the 48 pounds of meth and heroin sheriff’s investigators seized in Columbus, and the total 100 pounds of meth and 14.7 pounds of heroin they seized here and in Atlanta in a joint operation with Homeland Security. And the 112 pounds of heroin netted in the 1962 bust that inspired the movie “The French Connection.”

Still the sheriff’s office has its own titles to claim.

“We still stand by the fact that it’s the largest seizure by a local agency in Columbus,” said Maj. Joe McCrea of the sheriff’s office, referring specifically to heroin and methamphetamine.

Broaden the scope to other illegal drugs, and sheriff’s investigators also hold claim to the largest drug seizure by a local agency in the federal Middle District of Georgia, which encompasses 70 counties, McCrea said.

While investigating local drug kingpin Torrance “Bookie” Hill in 2005, they confiscated 2,564 pounds of marijuana and 500 pounds of cocaine, with a combined street value of $34,340,560, McCrea said. All of that was found here in Muscogee County, he said.

He said the sheriff’s office looked into the 1965 heroin bust, and learned the drugs were stored in secret compartments in a freezer that was shipped here from Orleans, France, when an Army officer transferred to Fort Benning and moved to a mobile home off post.

The officer’s connections in New York then traveled to Columbus, stopping to buy two suitcases and a footlocker in Opelika, Ala., as they intended to take the heroin back with them, McCrea said. The Army officer was arrested and the heroin seized before the conspirators could complete the transfer.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 1:49 PM with the headline "What was the largest drug bust in Columbus’ history?."