Fuller Part 61
Fuller
Part 61
West Texas
Local, state and Federal Law Enforcement agents sat behind a big box store waiting for the OK to carry out their raid. Their intended target was a non-profit that assisted pregnant women that intended to put their newborns up for adoption. And while their “safe and secure birthmothers living facility” had spacious rooms, an indoor pool and a large exercise area the facility had ties to the Juarez Cartel and were essentially selling babies to the highest bidder. The non-profit that was less than an hour from being raided was run by Catalina McMillan-Gomez. The STAG team had watched Catalina McMillan-Gomez kill a man on grainy video in a fight to the death at Lee’s warehouse party. STAG had also provided the tip that led Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services to investigate the facility and Catalina McMillan-Gomez.
The men and women standing around in the back of the big box store were a collection of local, state and federal agencies. Locally the task force included the local Sherriff and three of his most trusted and experienced Deputies and a man and woman from Child Protective Services. At the state level investigators from the Attorney General’s Office headed the contingent that included, members of the Texas Department of Public Safety including two grim faced Texas Rangers, the Texas Health and Human Services office, two forensic accountants from the State Comptroller’s office and three other State of Texas offices. Federally the raid would be headed by the FBI and included 3 other Federal Agencies including the US District Attorney’s Office. Since the original lead had come to the FBI from an undisclosed government source and had indentified the facility as a baby mill with ties to the Juarez Cartel the FBI had carefully approached other local, state and federal agencies to find trusted partners to join the task force. That hand-picked team of investigators and accountants had been pouring through records, files, licenses and lists trying to tie the facility to illegal activity. During the investigation a few things had stood out.
The supposedly non-profit’s stated objective was finding and recruiting healthy pregnant woman that were not interested in terminating their pregnancies or raising a child. Almost all the pregnant women accepted into the program were Caucasian yet the community had only stumbled onto that fact within the last 10 months. An article in an alternative paper had brought the facilities racial bias to the public’s attention and since the article was published a small but vocal group of activists had done their best to complicate Catalina’s life by targeting the facility. But it was apparent to the investigators that Catalina McMillan-Gomez had expertly avoided those calls from various community leaders that had publically implored her to make the facility available to all pregnant women regardless of race or background. She had deftly rebuked those detractors by emphasizing that the non-profit welcomed all young pregnant women regardless of race and that the faith based nature of the facility and very careful screening had led to a high success rate in placing babies in safe and loving homes. She explained that the limited funds she had available needed to be stretched and that many of the African-American and Hispanic applicants failed to meet the acceptance criteria that assured the best possible outcome for the child. She implored the community to provide financial assistance through grants, corporate sponsorship and public donations to insure that the facility could grow and do a better job of assisting young mothers that wished to put their babies up for adoption.
Once investigators confirmed that over 80% of all the young woman that had come through the facility had been white and the remaining 20% had been mostly Hispanic they know they were onto something interesting. Statistically that didn’t come close to representing the area’s demographics. Next was the fact that attorneys that had been vaguely tied to illegal adoptions in the past had a close relationship with the facility. And thirdly the facility had a large amount of money that was paid to dummy off-shore accounts for goods or services that weren’t inside what would be considered normal usage in a facility that helped mothers that put their babies up for adoption.
The tip along with the red flags that had quietly been investigated and some pressure from people that mattered meant that the investigation was given a high priority by the multi-jurisdictional task force assigned to investigate the facility. That intense scrutiny had turned up enough to raid the place and take a closer look at its operations and ask the director some hard questions. The only down side was that they had been informed that the tip had come from an ongoing investigation and that the raid needed to be coordinated with other operations across the state. So the raid team waited while the other pieces of the puzzle were moved into place.
When the original lead had been passed along a specific list of investigators had been cleared to work the case and secrecy was abnormally high. Despite the caveats the people charged with investigating these types of operations were thrilled to be working to shut the place down for good. The cartels had extensive operations in the US including human trafficking, drug smuggling, marijuana growing/distribution/sales, prostitution, counterfeiting goods, money laundering, ID theft and providing false documents to illegal’s. Finding out that the Juarez Cartel had ties to such an immoral operation was no surprise to those that understood the cartels and the links they would go to in their quest for greater profits.
Juarez
Despite having just taken down the cash warehouse less than an hour ago Grimm stood on the sidewalk in front of the house of his last target involved with the Juarez Cartel. As Grimm strolled by he glanced over at the man and his bodyguards as they moved toward the target’s armored luxury sedan. The car had cost the banker a little less than $100,000 and today it would do him no good at all. The banker was flanked by two of Madrago’s severe looking Russian bodyguards. At that precise moment Grinchito alerted Grimm that it was moments from firing. Grimm turned and watched as a bullet dropped both men with a single deadly shot from Grinchito’s suppressed rifle. The banker might not have noticed the suppressed weapon’s noise signature but he heard the men hit the ground and turned to stare in shock at what he saw. He stood absolutely still trying to comprehend what he was seeing as two puddles of blood on the sidewalk merged into one and grew larger.
By then Grimm had walked up to the man with a suppressed pistol extended from his hand. The pistol was pointed at his chest and when the banker saw the gun his eyes quite searching frantically for the direction of the threat and stared at Grimm. “Move and I’ll kill you. We’re just here to steal a little money and then you’ll be released unharmed. We do this quick and you and your family will have time to flee. I have Canadian IDs, Passports and documentation for the four of you and we’ve created a trail of paperwork to support your new identities. Also we’ll allow you to transfer $2,000,000US out of cartel funds and take whatever personal money you can lay your hands on. Is that acceptable to you or would you rather watch your family killed while you watch?” To emphasis his point Grimm fired two shots into each bodyguards head to insure that they were dead. The suppressed pistol along with subsonic 22 ammunition meant that the report was very minimal.
The overweight banker sagged and placed his hands on his knees. Grimm had seen the man’s health records and was hopeful that the stress wouldn’t cause him to have a heart attack. After some panicked breathing the man stood and stared at Grimm. The banker’s face was noticeably paler compared to 2 minutes and ago and he looked like stress had aged him 10 years in a matter of a few minutes. “That is acceptable. How can I be sure you will honor your agreement?”
Grimm looked at the man. “First of all despite your connection to the Juarez Cartel I avoid unnecessary the killing of civilians whenever possible. And the other thing you need to bear in mind that you have no choice. Be glad you’re getting a chance to run instead of being held accountable for your past sins. You’ve worked with the Juarez Cartel for what 15 years?”
The man was past looking drawn and pasty. “17 years and every single day I curse the day they approached me and I said yes. Every single day I wait for a man like you to find me, point a gun at me and threaten to hurt and kill my family. I have my two sons’ in private school and they are good boys with a bright future ahead of them. If you do kill me all I ask is that they be spared and allowed to grow up and fulfill their potential. My wife and I will gladly offer ourselves up so that they may survive.”
Grimm lowered the gun along his leg. “Do as I ask and you and your wife will be spared. And I understand your hopes for your boys but as long as the cartels control the politicians, the Police and the military your sons will have little in the way of opportunity in Mexico. The cartels and especially the Juarez Cartel need to be destroyed now before it gets even worse. Part of that involves you helping us steal enough money from the Juarez Cartel to hurt them. Without money they are vulnerable. Money and violence are the two things that give them power. Without money they will be desperate and will not be able to control as many politicians, officials, or the corrupt cops and soldiers that work for them. If the bribes aren’t paid, then the whole situation changes in Juarez. Everyone will not turn a blind eye to what the cartel is doing unless they are paid. The corrupt have become accustomed to the cash they are paid. They are greedy and will not remain passive accomplices unless they are taken care of.”
“I agree that some will not work with the Juarez Cartel unless they are paid.” The portly banker quickly replied. “But the Juárez Cartel will still control dozens of ruthless sicarios. As long as the sicarios are with the Juarez Cartel the people will live in fear and do as they are told.”
“Maybe this is one of the first steps to breaking the cartel’s back?” Grimm replied. “Or the army of cartel sicarios will break off and start their own cartel and challenge the Juarez Cartel. Or a rival cartel will attempt to takeover Juarez plazas or corridors. Or maybe there will be infighting within the Juarez Cartel itself. Maybe all three will happen at the same time and really make it interesting. If any of those scenarios happen it will mean a dramatic increase in the number of deaths on the streets of Juarez and that is tragic but deaths in Mexico are not my concern. After losing so much money if any of those things happen then it can divert attention from their core business and negatively impact the efficiency of day-to-day operations. The mistrust that can spring up under those conditions will make the cartel much more vulnerable than they are right now. That is a situation we think we can exploit.” Grimm paused. “I don’t know if you heard but Lee has been missing since noon yesterday and we hear that Madrago died in his sleep last night. When you pair that with the fact that Lee’s private party was also blown up by a grenade attack last night it sounds like maybe Lee grabbed as much cartel money as he could and left the life. We’re searching for him but he is a very wealthy man and after plastic surgery the chances of him being found quickly are not good. I don’t know if he ordered the grenade attack on the party or someone else did but within 72 hours Juarez will explode in cartel violence.”
The banker stared at Grimm with a look of defeat on his face. “I was told about Lee and Madrago at 6am this morning. I was told that Lee fled and Madrago died of natural causes. The banker stated in a matter of fact tone. “So, what’s next?” the banker asked.
Grimm felt the banker fully understood his predicament. “You will tell your family that you all must leave today. They will not be allowed to make any calls or send any texts, notes or e-mails. They simply pack a few bags and then everyone leaves. My people will help them stay safe while they pack and you and I take a trip to your office. When we get to your office you will transfer the money to our accounts and we’ll return here in a few hours. When we get back we pack everyone up and head to the airport where you’ll board a plane and jet off into your future. But never forget, we have a very long international reach and some of the best counter-terrorism resources in the world. Betray us at your own risk. If you do as you’re told we will arrange for you to leave Mexico via private jet and be taken to where you want to go. You’ll have money and clean papers so your future is what you make of it. But if you leave here and go back to working for criminals and terrorists you will be killed by us. This is your one chance at a fresh start.”
The banker looked like he had seen his future and a slight smile almost spread across his face. “I want to go someplace where the cartel cannot get to my family and my sons can have a better life.”
Grimm stared at the man. “Ever think what you’d want to do if you hadn’t got into bed with the Juarez Cartel? Everyone in your family speaks good English and the background we built for you say’s all of you are naturalized Canadian citizens and have lived in Toronto since 04. You are in private banking and your wife stayed at home to raise your boys. You can live just about anywhere in the world you want as Canadian ex-pats except in the US, her territories or Canada. The history we built for you shows that your family left Mexico 10 years ago and all of you became Canadian citizens 6 years ago. The documentation we put together will back-up your story if anyone gets overly curious or runs a background check for a new job.”
The overweight banker nodded. “My wife and I have dreamed for years that we might get out of Juarez and start over. You won’t be offended if I don’t share that dream with you?”
Grimm nodded as he slid the suppressed pistol back into it holster. “I understand. Shall we step back inside and speak with your family?”
An El Paso Suburb
Jimmy Keys and 3 STAG team members sat in the stolen SUV waiting for the “go” signal that meant they could raid the money stash house. They had scanned the seemingly normal middle class tract home with a thermal imager and saw that there were three people in it. All three people were in different parts of the house and two residents might have been sleeping.
The phone rang and Paco answered it. “Roger.” Paco ended the call and spoke to the team. “We’re cleared, let’s go.”
Because it was mid-morning the street was completely empty. A majority of workers had already left to make their daily commute to work and the school buses had already picked up the kids and taken them to school. So the men walked around to the house’s side to the back door and Jimmy Keys leaned down and began to do his job. Jimmy Keys had visually inspected the front of the house for a home alarm sign, he had examined or seen pictures of every window looking for alarm stickers or window contacts, scanned two of the doors and some of the windows using high-tech gear, looked over every square inch of the yard searching for cameras and scanned all available frequencies looking for signals that might indicate an alarm system that communicated with a monitoring center or even a smart phone/table. After the hours he had spent examining the site he was 90% sure the house didn’t have a home security system or any operational cameras. The team’s support people back east had searched the databases of every security monitoring system in North America and found no account that was linked to the address. As an added precaution the people back east ran extensive background checks on every single occupant in every house that was in a one block radius of the target house. They delved into the property owner’s and occupants criminal history, financial history, credit history, banking records, school records, phone usage, internet activity, and searched through family trees looking for links to members of the Juarez Cartel or El Paso street gangs with cartel ties. But that and looking at older satellite photos searching for unusual activity didn’t turn up anything that seemed troubling.
If any neighbors were linked to the house the expert investigators and the highly competent tech staff had been unable to make the connections. In his black mask Jimmy Keys leaned down in front of the door and defeated the deadbolt lock and slowly turned the knob. He opened the door an inch and satisfied that the team would be able to enter safely slowly turned the knob back to its original position and stepped back.
The masked STAG men entered quickly and had subdued all the home’s occupants before they knew what was happening. As the three occupants sat on the floor with their hands flex cuffed behind their back one of the STAG people asked them where the money was in Spanish. While that was happening two other men were scanning the walls and floors with imagers that gave them an almost x-ray view of inside the walls and what was behind the floors and ceilings. The safe they had located almost instantly in the homeowner’s bedroom held four stacks of banded $100.00 bills that totaled $40,000. But after a few more minutes of searching two STAG team people were smashing out sheetrock beside the toilet in the hall bathroom. The sheetrock had been expertly repaired after the money had been placed inside the hollow cavity and wallpaper had been hung above a chair rail. When the men had broken through the wall they found three cavities filled to the wall’s top plate with wrapped bundles of currency. All of the bundles were approximately 3 inches thick and the men quickly stuffed the wrapped bundles into duffle bags they had brought with them.
Before the first cavity was empty they realized they had more money than would fit into the duffels they had brought. “Need two more bags main hall bathroom ASAP.”
Jimmy Keys heard the call over his headset and lifted up his mask and with his head turned to the ground he walked quickly to their vehicle and grabbed 4 more duffels from the backseat. He entered the house and went to the bathroom to deliver the bags. Instead of staring at the money or making any comments he turned and headed back out to his observation location near the home’s front door. There would be time to speculate about the money later, right now he had a job to do.
The phone in Jimmy Keys pocket vibrated just as walked out the front door and he quickly answered it. “Lock.”
We have 4 unidentified armed men heading your way. They came out of the back of an apartment building three blocks away and are in a green late model GM mid-sized SUV. They’re stuck behind a trash truck and a police cruiser is three cars in front of them. We saw AKs so you might want to wrap it up and get out of there.”
Jimmy Keys swallowed and spoke over his communication system. “Four armed hostiles inbound. ETA is less than 60 seconds.”
Over the headset the inside team responded. “Done, we’re coming out in 30 seconds. Back the vehicle into the drive facing toward the street.” This time Jimmy Keys ran to the team’s vehicle without raising his mask and quickly backed it up until he was a few feet from the garage door.
15 seconds later the rest of the team threw the heavy duffle bags loaded with money into the back of the SUV and piled in.
“Drive it like you stole it.” Paco yelled to Jimmy Keys at the wheel of the SUV.
Jimmy Keys knew no other Police vehicles were in the area so he smashed the gas pedal to the floor and rocketed out of the driveway and onto the street quickly accelerating to 55 MPH on the quiet nearly empty residential streets. He slowed at the first Stop sign two blocks later and as agreed to beforehand braked to a more sedate 30mph and made the next left heading for the nearest main road that would get them heading back toward downtown. They passed the van that held the two men that would have deployed stop sticks and laid down covering fire had it been needed and the van quickly fell in behind them. The two vehicles split up 4 miles later and began their efforts to insure that they weren’t being followed. By then the GPS trackers and dye packs in the money had all been neutralized and placed in a lead lined blast can the size of a large cooler. As far as the men in the SUV knew they were clean of any electronic emissions that would allow them to be tracked. As an added precaution the money and the assault team would transfer to an older armored car marked with a security companies’ logo as soon as they were clear. That armored car would drive pre-determined routes until the support team in the van was entirely satisfied that they weren’t being tracked. At that point the money would be loaded onto the STAG helicopter and taken to a remote branch of a bank that was flexible when it came to required reporting and ID.
Juarez-
Paco Javos set the phone down and took a deep breath. His boss had just called to tell him that their family had just lost 30 members in Juarez and another 50 in El Paso in the last 12 hours. That meant that people were being shifted around so that the business could go on as normal. He had been smuggling exotic animals for the Cartel and running a legitimate pet wholesaling business in El Paso for 5 years. While not as profitable as running people and drugs across the border it wasn’t a business that most considered to be a cartel related business and he had never had any problem with the law. A few animal rights groups had tried repeatedly to send people into his organization to videotape the warehouse and post the pictures on the internet. But he only hired Mexicans that understood that the cartel controlled the business and crossing them would mean death. As he sat back down in his office he contemplated what his next move would be.
The man that Paco had brought from Madagascar and was responsible for the problems along the border was hiding out in a small house outside Juarez. From what he had told Paco the man had been a good student in his homeland and was able to attend school in the US on a scholarship before moving on to complete 2 years training to be an engineer. After his second year in engineering school his handlers recalled him to the Middle East prior to 9-11. Paco called him Guy and the bomb maker had grown up poor in Yemen. Extensive plastic surgery in South America had given his face Hispanic characteristics and the man spoke very good Spanish.
Near the El Paso Airport
Lep and Gracie passed through the door and Doc stood there. “Good to see you boys. I need you to strip down and take a shower using the products on the counter. Instruction cards are taped beside each product. Please follow the instructions exactly and put on the robes when you’re done. The clothes you wore in and the towels go in the red bag and will be burned so check the pockets make sure you didn’t leave anything you need in them. I have an exam to finish up in the other room and should be ready by the time you finish. Gracie, keep the bandage on your wound and I’ll get you fixed up when I do your exam. Any questions?”
Both men nodded that they understood what they needed to do and Lep nodded at Gracie who stepped into the bathroom to take his shower.
Since living in close confines increased the likelihood of contracting and spreading things like lice, bedbugs, pinworms, meningitis and ring worms the Doc wanted to exam everyone to ensure they were healthy. So now that this phase of the operation was completed the people in STAG and the surveillance team would be screened for those maladies and more to insure they were in the best possible health before returning to a wait and see mode inside the US. So far the worst thing the extensive exams and the blood work had shown was that Grimm was suffering from an upper respiratory infection and Gracie had sustained a non-life threatening gunshot wound. Doc had prescribed oral steroids, anti-biotics, plenty of fluids and rest for Grimm. If need be Grimm could still do his job but by treating the problem and giving his body the opportunity to heal he was that much closer to returning to full operational status. From what Doc had been told Gracie’s wound was fairly minor and should be easily treated.
Doc returned to the room next door where Close sat on a rented exam table wearing a robe and leafing through a supermarket tabloid magazine. Without make-up Doc could detect the bags under her eyes and the overall fatigue that she was experiencing. She just like others he examined was tired and in much need of some rest and relaxation. The chore of interfering with the Juarez Cartel’s operation was extremely stressful. Knowing that a mistake or getting caught could subject you to torture and death was always in their mind and everyone was excited that they might be done and able to take a much needed break. “Your blood work should be back by tomorrow morning. I’ll call if it shows anything we need to be concerned about. Anything else you want to talk about?”
Close smiled as she should to get dressed. “I’m good Doc. You have any interesting vacation ideas? I was thinking someplace warm where drinks can be delivered to my cabana and sunburn and dehydration are my biggest concerns?”
The Doc smiled at her question. If the STAG team was cleared then each member would be provided a set of forged documents and encouraged to take a few weeks off to rest and relax before returning for additional training and their next mission. “I hear Ibiza is great this time of year. Personally I’m not a big fan of electronic music but I know you are and I have the name of a restaurant there that will knock your socks off.”
Grimm already nixed Ibiza. He told me that there were too many German tourists there for his taste. He told me that every time he hears a German tourist he thinks about German beer. The week after he got home from Afghanistan he and a friend headed to Vegas and he got so drunk on German beer he was hung over for three days. Grimm admitted to the fact he still drank a few beers, but not German beer. He claimed he’d never drink German beer again.
Close and the Doc chatted for a few more minutes and after Doc went back into the other room Close got dressed and returned to the room she was sharing with Grimm. As soon as the door was closed to their room she again shed her clothes and climbed into bed.
Grimm smiled as he watched Close undress and slip into the king sized bed with nothing on except a smile.