Release Date: September 26, 2023
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-148-7
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-57869-149-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910711
eBook: 978-1-57869-150-0. To Purchase the eBook, Click Here.
Booksellers and Libraries: Order Here.

SYNOPSIS

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. 

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. 

PRAISE

“This wild ride takes readers from Northeast America to Panama, Puerto Rico, and more, creating a gripping narrative of what goes into bringing down major players in the world of drug trafficking. A Peek Under the Hood affords readers inside access to the ups and downs of hunting the most notorious drug traffickers, making this a riveting book.”

–BookLife

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“Operation Tune-up was a well-oiled machine” –Worcester Sunday Telegram

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“Before the WooSox in Worcester, there was Operation Tune-Up. An adventurous true crime story with feel-good results, this book hits it out of the park!”

–Steve Lyons, former MLB player, Boston Red Sox analyst, and author of Psychoanalysis

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“A Peek Under the Hood is a fascinating look into DEA’s Operation Tune Up, which dismantled several international drug operations in the depressed Main South area of Worcester, Mass. in the mid-1990s when heroin reigned supreme…Pevarnik describes in engrossing detail the colorful Hispanic, Vietnamese, and South Asian drug perpetrators who had all migrated to Worcester, which became the epicenter of regional drug dealing during that era...He also carefully describes the perpetrators’ connections to the various sources of the drugs in places like Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, and Thailand, and how and where the drugs were transported and distributed, ending up in Worcester.

And he meticulously describes the development and execution of Op-plans designed to interdict the drug flow and bring the perpetrators to justice…working from the street level up to the kingpins, all leading to the dramatic denouement. A great read.”

–Dean B. Pineles, retired judge and author of A Judge’s Odyssey: From Vermont to Russia, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, Then on to War Crimes and Organ Trafficking in Kosovo

Reviews & In the News

Police1, March 14, 2024: Books by LEOs, for LEOs: Page-turners to add to your reading list in 2024

Kirkus Reviews, December 13, 2023: An enlightening and exhilarating true-crime book.

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