U.S. Will Seek NBC News Tape : Narcotics: A judge threatened to throw out a massive drug case unless the prosecution agreed to subpoena the recordings made during a stakeout.

SAN FRANCISCO — Threatened with dismissal of a record-setting drug case, federal prosecutors agreed Wednesday to seek NBC News recordings of a government stakeout that led to the largest heroin seizure in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who said last month that he would throw out the case unless prosecutors complied, promptly approved the government’s request for a subpoena ordering the network to supply by Jan. 22 all video and audio recordings it made during a monthlong surveillance last spring.

The judge’s action took place after Assistant U.S. Atty. John W. Kennedy disclosed that U.S. Atty. Gen. William Barr had authorized issuance of the subpoena.

Defense attorneys had asked the government to provide the tapes on the grounds that they may reveal evidence exonerating suspects in the seizure of 1,500 pounds of heroin, valued at up to $4 billion, that allegedly had been smuggled from Asia into the Port of Oakland.

Wednesday’s action averted what might have been a stunning loss for the government. But there apparently remained the possibility that NBC News would resist the subpoena’s demand for “all” the tapes it made during the stakeout. NBC News policy is not to provide outtake material that has not been broadcast, even in response to subpoenas, the network said.

NBC spokeswoman Katherine McQuay issued a statement saying: “We have not seen the subpoena yet but we intend to provide everything we have broadcast. It is our understanding that we will be able to provide everything that the government is seeking.” McQuay declined to comment when asked whether this meant the network would or would not provide tape that never aired.

The massive heroin seizure June 20 drew nationwide attention and federal officials hailed it as a major victory in the war on drugs. U.S. Customs Commissioner Carol Hallett flew into San Francisco to formally announce the seizure. Robert Bender, head of the regional office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said investigators had “ripped the heart out” of a major Asian smuggling ring.

Five suspects--four of them resident aliens living in nearby Blackhawk--were charged in the case. At a hearing last month, however, the celebrated prosecution was suddenly jeopardized when the defense asked prosecutors for videotapes taken by an NBC camera crew during a government stakeout at a Hayward warehouse weeks before the arrests.