A Peek Under the Hood: Heroin, Hope, and Operation Tune-Up

by Michael Pevarnik

Overview

2023 First Place Winner, True Crime, Firebird Book Award

2024 Finalist, Narrative Nonfiction & True Crime, American Writing Award

2024 Top Ten Finalist, Nonfiction, Bookshelf Award

2024 Second Place Winner, True Crime, Bookfest Book Award

A Peek Under the Hood is a true crime exposé of the case that freed an entire inner-city neighborhood from the perils and decay wrought by heroin trafficking.

In 1994, DEA Special Agent Michael Pevarnik opened an investigation with his informant, a Vietnamese refugee who infiltrated a string of drug-dealing auto repair shops in Worcester, Massachusetts. His yearlong case, Operation Tune-Up, solved murders in New York; chased a wily fugitive through Puerto Rico; went undercover with cocaine smugglers in Panama; and, most impactfully, exposed the biggest heroin traffickers the old mill town had ever seen.

When Worcester's Main South neighborhood was given a voice as a crime victim nearly two years after the virtual elimination of heroin in New England's second largest city-a phenomenon that reduced violent crime, stimulated business growth, increased property values, and improved the quality of life-it was the first time in US court history a community was allowed to give a victim-witness statement, declaring what they, not law enforcement, defined as a victory in the war on drugs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578691487
Publisher:	Rootstock Publishing
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Pages:	234
Sales rank:	600,399
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Michael Pevarnik is a retired DEA supervisory special agent. During his thirty-year career, he led the New England Field Division's Mobile Enforcement Team (MET), an elite Boston-based group that deployed to fight drug-related violent crime in communities throughout the six-state region. Visit his website, www.michaelpevarnik.com.

Editorial Reviews

2023-12-13
Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent Pevarnik highlights a methodical 1990s investigation into drug-related crime in a Massachusetts neighborhood.

The author writes that, in 1994, he was stuck in an office on a weeklong administrative assignment when he took an unusual call: A Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal had worked with a Vietnamese informant who was willing to help the DEA. The man, who’s called “Lanh” in the text, had been a great help in Ontario until multiple death threats forced him to relocate to Worcester, Massachusetts. His first act for the DEA was arranging an undercover purchase of crack, as well as a handgun, from an auto body shop owner in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood. Lanh developed such a good reputation as a buyer that other dealers (from other auto shops) approached him, and he got other agents involved in what the agency called Operation Tune-Up. The DEA had its sights set on bigger fish, and the investigation expanded to other states, Puerto Rico, and foreign countries. The author’s pithy prose drops readers right at the start of the investigation and draws them in with succinct, informative prose featuring illuminating, playful comparisons; a tiny, bagged sample of Colombian heroin, for instance, is said to be akin to a supermarket’s “toothpick speared” samples, and the sight of spectators swiveling their heads toward a speeding car is likened to a tennis match’s audience. Pevarnik ably describes the apprehension of monitoring wired agents as they interacted with criminals, as well as the tense rivalries between law enforcement agencies and departments and between dealers. Lanh, however, is the story’s most riveting figure; his motivation was virtuous, as he was fed up with the destruction that drugs caused, and he skillfully handled exchanges with criminals, although his impulsiveness made Pevarnik nervous. The author’s wrap-up of the case is just as detailed as it is incisive.

An enlightening and exhilarating true-crime book.

Kirkus Reviews