By Shane Ivey, ©1998.
DATE: 4 June 1998
AGENTS: Osborne
SUMMARY: A memorandum from Case Officer Osborne to Cell A regarding the progress of Operation SANDMAN.
CASE STATUS: Open
To: Cell A
From: Osborne
Subject: Operation SANDMAN
Date: 04 JUNE 1998
Operation SANDMAN has uncovered a number of unusual developments in New York. Reports on the individual anomalies will be sent separately with appropriate debriefing excerpts and memoranda from our field agents. In brief: the “Dreaming Man” drug is more dangerous in its effects than previously suspected, and any further incidents of it should be investigated immediately. Its source in Harfleur is still unknown. The field agents have encountered paranormal phenomena, most recently in a raid on a cult devoted to the drug (see attachment). They have also encountered several highly skilled covert operatives, resulting in four deaths and one hospitalization; the rapid response of the operatives’ employer’s public relations efforts and the sophistication of their hardware leads me to suspect covert government involvement at a high level. I know the field agents suspect the same thing and are undertaking constant efforts to maintain secrecy, but ongoing events have only made them more visible. Hopefully they will require no further support from organization friendlies; the current involvement of four agents and nine friendlies in such a public investigation already presents a great risk to compartmental security. Further reports will be forthcoming.
27 DEAD, 10 MISSING IN NYC CULT RAID New York, June 4, 1998 — It has already been dubbed the “Voodoo Bloodbath” by radio and television announcers: a police raid of a small Haitian church turned deadly last night, leading to the deaths of more than two dozen worshippers and at least two police officers, and the mysterious disappearance of ten heavily-armed “SWAT” officers from the New York Police Department.
It all began last night around 9:00 P.M., when, police say, federal drug investigators were told of a police officer in distress at 1652 24th Street, Queens, the location of a small voodoo church. Four investigators went to the scene, where they found the body of the missing officer, identified as NYPD police officer Leroy Lemonde. The federal agents were then reportedly attacked by the congregants. A vicious firefight ensued before the investigators retreated and called for back-up, in which as many as a dozen congregants were killed and ten more wounded. Other congregants reportedly retreated into the house at 1652 24th Street or fled into neighboring buildings or alleys.
Police then came to the scene in force, says Captain Elton Ramsey of the 116th Precinct. The federal agents reported the presence of a bizarre chemical gas in the area which apparently caused powerful and dangerous hallucinations, which the cult was apparently using in their worship, but two officers entered the house before receiving this warning. They did not come out.
A team of officers from the Emergency Services Unit, the “SWAT” team of the NYPD, entered the house in a barrage of tear gas. According to Captain Ramsey, they may have succumbed to the unknown drug’s effects, as they reportedly became disoriented before communications were lost. Gunshots were heard, however, and two of the ESU officers fled the house: one of them fired on the other police and was shot to death, while the other fell from an upper-floor window and is reported to be in serious condition at nearby Faith Hospital. Several other officers entered the house in an effort to locate and retrieve the missing officers, but they retreated again as a fire began to consume the building. Emergency crews brought the blaze under control before it spread to any nearby structures.
Police suspect the missing officers and suspects were trapped in a tunnel beneath the house, and excavations are underway to locate them.
Special Agent Donna Wang, a forensic scientist from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated that federal agents recently began an investigation of the deadly drug used by the 24th Street congregation, but she refused to give details of their operation or identify the officers involved in the initial shootings. Her team withdrew around a dozen corpses from the house after the fires were extinguished. A statement on their findings, she said, will be issued soon.
