THE MERCHANTS OF HEROIN

A fairly dull rerun (certainly no Collision Course) of one heroin operation (heroin provides both the most complete release and enslavement of any drug) which gives some assiduous explanations of the narcotics traffic from beginning to end--in this case Leavenworth. All via the record of a pomaded Armenian. Levon Levonian, who had an earlier conviction in Istanbul, later learned how to convert opium into morphine (and then to heroin), arranged for his biggest and final shipment aboard the S.S. Liberte, 25 kilos, where he was eventually picked up with a suitcase full of it. . . . Moscow has told his story with assists from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Readers Digest (where it will appear); the facts are probably all right but the fictional fillers, the ""something like this"" conversations with cryptic ""Nahs"" and ""Yeahs"" and ""Aghs"". . . with * * * * are leaden.