Mark Bowden - Doctor Dealer. The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine...

MARK BOWDEN

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

The Best Game Ever

Bringing the Heat

Black Hawk Down

Guests of the Ayatollah

Killing Pablo

Copyright 1987 by Mark Bowden
Afterword copyright 2001 by Mark Bowden

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Originally published in 1987 by Warner Books, Inc., a Warner
Communications Company, New York, New York

The article beginning on page xiv is reprinted with permission
from The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 16, 1986.

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

The events in this story are true. Names and physical characteristics of many
individuals have been changed in order to protect their privacy.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bowden, Mark

Doctor dealer / Mark Bowden.

p. cm.

Originally published: New York, NY : Warner Books, c1987.

ISBN-10: 0-8021-3757-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-3757-9

1. Lavin, Lawrence W. 2. Narcotics dealersUnited StatesBiography.
3. DentistsUnited StatesBiography. 4. Cocaine habitUnited States
Case studies. 5. Narcotics, Control ofUnited StatesCase studies. I. Title.
HV6248.L325 B69 2000
364.177092dc21

[B]

00-032146

Design by H. Roberts

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

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08 09 10 11 12 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6

For Tom Scheye

First among those I would like to thank for helping me write this book are Larry and Marcia Lavin, who answered my innumerable questions with patience, thoughtfulness, and candoreven when the subject matter concerned things they would prefer to forget. Thanks are also due to Chuck Reed, Sid Perry, Mike White, Peter Scuderi, Agnes Osborn, Nancy Payne and her family, Jess and Babette Miller, Steve La Cheen, Henry S. Ruth, Jr., Willie Harcourt, Ricky Baratt, Glen Fuller, Brian Riley, John Sidoli (pianist and mathematician), Suzanne Taylor, Christine Pietrucha, Tom Bergstrom and Lynn, Chris, and Anita Furlan, Ron Noble and Tina Williams Gabbrielli, Pauline and Justin Lavin, Sr., and others who will appreciate not being named.

I would also like to thank Gene Roberts for giving me time off to work on this book, Jamie Raab, Ed Sedarbaum, Rhoda Weyr, David Hirshey, Hank Klibanoff, Donald Kimelman, Avery Rome, Katherine Hatton, Elizabeth Coady (because I owe her one), and Rosie Patterson (for watching Danny). A special thanks to Gail, to my mother and father, and to each and every member of my family for their continuing love and encouragement.

DOCTOR DEALER

There was no reason to suspect anything unusual when Larry saw Pat ODonnell on the dock in a business suit. Pat was a semiretired FBI agent who kept his boat berthed at the Lynnhaven Dry Storage marina. He often came by after putting in a morning at the office, and spent the afternoon talking to his friends as they came in off the water. Sometimes he carried a walkie-talkie in case the office needed to get in touch.

Larry had been out all day with his friend Roy Mason. It had been a lazy fishing trip on a calm sea under a sky so bright it hurt the eyes. Larry looked tousled and tired, the picture of a man of leisure back from a day at sea, his thick black hair windblown, his long narrow nose and cheeks sunburned. He was dressed in a maroon rugby shirt with wide chest stripes of yellow and blue, worn baggy jeans, and leather deck shoes with no socks. He smelled of fish, and was eager to get home and clean up. Larry didnt enjoy fishing as much as Roy; he had gone along mostly to keep his friend company. They hadnt caught much, just a few cove fish that were a nuisance because they snapped at your fingers when you tried to take them off the hook.

As the vessel swung alongside the pier, ODonnell strode out to meet them. Larry figured Pat wanted to ask, as dedicated fishermen always did, what they had caught and where. Docked across the narrow slip of water, facing seaward, Larry was surprised to see a high-performance Wellcraft, a sleek speedboat called a Scarab. Pat had been talking to two men in that boat. They were also in business suits... that was odd.

When the boat got close, Larry jumped up to the wharf and, with Roy feeding him the lines, quickly secured them and skipped back aboard to begin retrieving his gear.

Hows the fishin? asked Pat.

Larry smiled and turned and stooped to open the cooler. He knew the sight of three or four cove fish would make Pat laugh. But before he could turn and display the largest of their catch he was grabbed under both arms by men he had not even seen approaching.

Larry, its all over, said Pat.

Youre under arrest, one of the men said.

Larry looked at Pat, who was no longer smiling.

You are Larry Lavin, arent you? asked one of the men holding his arms.

Yes. I am, said Larry quietly. The man clapped handcuffs on his wrists in one quick motion.

Wait just a minute... there must be some mistake! shouted Roy. Pat, whats going on here?

Larry was already being rushed forward along the pier, now with a group of five or six men around him. Behind him he overheard Pat ODonnell hushing Roys protests, trying to explain.

(The Philadelphia Inquirer; May 16, 1986)

Lawrence W. Lavin, the former Northeast Philadelphia dentist who allegedly masterminded a major cocaine-distribution ring, was arrested without incident yesterday as he disembarked from a fishing boat in Virginia Beach, Va., the FBI said.

Lavin, 31, had been a fugitive since November 1984, a few months after he was charged with heading a $5-million-a-month cocaine ring involving many other young professionals. He was free on $150,000 bail when he and his then-pregnant wife fled their Devon home.

An FBI spokesman in Philadelphia said agents arrested Lavin about 5:20 p.m. as he and another dentistwho did not know Lavins true identitywere docking the other mans 25-foot sport fishing boat at a marina. He was wearing blue jeans and a rugby shirt. He had been using an alias but had made no effort to disguise his appearance, the FBI said.

At the same time agents were arresting Lavin, other agents were arresting his wife, Marcia, at the couples home in an exclusive Virginia Beach development known as Middle Plantation, the FBI said. She was charged with harboring a fugitive.

Both were being held in Virginia last night pending an arraignment before a federal magistrate. The couples two children, including a baby, had been living with them, according to the FBI.

Lavin faces drug charges in U.S. District Court here that could bring him a life sentence if he is convicted. In addition to a 40-count indictment on drug offenses, he is also charged with evading $545,000 in federal income taxes.