Ike Atkinson

Leslie "Ike" Atkinson (November 19, 1925 - November 11, 2014) was a US Army master sergeant and convicted drug trafficker. He is believed to have been a major figure in smuggling heroin into the United States from Southeast Asia from about 1968 to 1975.

Criminal career

Atkinson's downfall came in 1975. He made arrangements to ship packages containing heroin to two separate addresses in Fayetteville, North Carolina, each belonging to elderly black women whose names were obtained from personnel records. A serviceman on Atkinson's payroll would come to collect the packages, claiming that they had been misaddressed. During one shipment, the pickup was late; one of the women contacted the postal service while the other called the police to report a bomb threat. The police identified Atkinson from a palm print on one of the heroin bags, and he was arrested on January 19, 1975, in his home in Goldsboro while on leave. He was convicted the following year and received a prison sentence of 31 years. Atkinson was released in 2007.

Cadaver Connection

The "Cadaver Connection" was a supposed heroin smuggling operation involving the use of coffins containing dead American soldiers being shipped home for burial to move heroin into the United States for processing. Frank Lucas, one of Atkinson's partners in the US, stated that this was how the narcotic was smuggled out of Thailand:

Atkinson disputed Lucas' claims, stating "It is a total lie that's fueled by Frank Lucas for personal gain. I never had anything to do with transporting heroin in coffins or cadavers."

Prison and release

While serving his sentence, Atkinson was charged with additional counts of drug trafficking for organizing the sale of heroin through his old contacts. He was charged following a 15-month investigation where an undercover agent, posing as a corrupt German diplomat, obtained five pounds of heroin from buyers in Thailand by claiming that he was associated with Atkinson. Six other inmates were also charged, as was corrections officer Samuel Arrante, 36, for smuggling incriminating letters used to communicate information about potential deals. Also charged was Atkinson's nephew, Philip Wade Atkinson, 40, who bought the heroin on his uncle's behalf from the undercover agent at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where he was arrested. Atkinson was released from prison in 2007, and died in November 2014 at the age of 88.

In popular culture

* The concept of smuggling drugs from Vietnam via dead soldiers is referenced in Tom Clancy's book '' Without Remorse''.
* A similar plot was used in "Back In The World", the December 6, 1985, episode of the American TV series '' Miami Vice'', in which Vietnam War correspondent Ira Stone ( Bob Balaban), who is investigating a series of drug-related deaths involving methanol, the byproduct of a decomposing drug stash that had been brought back to Miami a decade earlier in the bodies of dead soldiers.
* In '' American Gangster'', Leslie’s character is portrayed as a cousin (by marriage) of Frank Lucas that is stationed with the US Army in Bangkok during the Vietnam War.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, Ike
1925 births
2014 deaths
American drug traffickers
United States Army non-commissioned officers
People from Goldsboro, North Carolina
Military personnel from North Carolina