On the evening of October 12, 1972, a 25-year-old male federal agent named Frank Tummillo was killed during an undercover drug operation in a hotel on Manhattan's West Side. Tummillo, a Special Agent for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, was in the process of negotiating the purchase of ten kilograms of cocaine from two traffickers. He had shown the two men the $160,000 in cash intended for the transaction.
After the initial meeting, the two traffickers left the hotel room,
supposedly to retrieve the cocaine. Special Agent Tummillo then stepped out to confer with his fellow agents who were positioned nearby. However, he was ambushed by the traffickers and forced back into the room at gunpoint. While one of the men held Tummillo hostage, the other began to search for the money.
Unaware of the turn of events, Group Supervisor Thomas Devine, another agent on the team, entered the hotel room and was confronted by the armed traffickers. A struggle ensued, during which Devine was shot. The second trafficker then fatally shot Special Agent Tummillo. As the two assailants attempted to flee the scene, they were killed by surveillance agents. Thomas Devine was left paralyzed from his wounds and passed away ten years later due to complications.
