The cocaine tightly packed in bales, consisting of a number of smaller waterproof plastic covered packages weighing a few kilos each, was loaded by night from a launch onto a fast motor cruiser anchored a few miles off the port of Maracaibo, in the neck of water between the Lago de Maracaibo and the Golfo de Venezuela. The cocaine had arrived by road from the narco-industry’s clandestine laboratories, located in the area surrounding the town of Santa Marta on the north coast of Colombia, where it had been transformed from a raw paste into a refined product.
The cargo, totalling nearly three tons of pure cocaine, had crossed the frontier between the two countries, which were separated by the Sierra Perija Mountains. It arrived at intervals on different four-wheel drive vehicles to avoid the border patrols. It was a simple precaution, there were very few night patrols, it was far too dangerous for the police, the narco-traffickers and smugglers were heavily armed and did not hesitate to fire.
The cargo had a market value of over one hundred million US dollars and its journey could take several weeks via the Windward Island and the Canaries before arriving at its final destination in Europe.
Barton had received coded email instructions to rendezvous with the motor launch and a gofast off a coral reef called Bird Island some 200 kilometres to the west of Guadeloupe. The weather forecast indicated favourable conditions, the main criteria for the drug runners, good cloud cover but little wind and with the moon on the wane giving them a fine but dark night.
The Marie Galante was carrying a full load of nine thousand litres of gasoline to refuel the gofast and enough for the motor cruiser if necessary. The cargo was to be transboarded at night, one in the morning, which would enable the gofast to make the four-hour run up to Sint Maarten under the cover of darkness. After the refuelling Barton would then return to Pointe-à-Pitre, where he was scheduled to pick up Castlemain and his guests for their seven-day cruise to the Caymans.
Barton was experienced in refuelling operations, the risk was small, and it usually took not more than half-an-hour, depending on sea conditions, to pump the fuel from the yacht’s tanks to the gofast.
The three boats made their rendezvous exactly as planned and the refuelling went without a hitch in the calm sea, as did the transfer of the cargo to the gofast, just as it had done on previous occasions. As they disconnected the pipelines, the motors of the gofast, which had been ticking over at a regular rhythm, stopped. After more than twenty minutes of effort there was no way they could restart the motors, they were powerful and highly tuned with electronic fuel injection. There was an electrical problem, which could not be easily solved.
The captain of the motor cruiser had the choice of either taking the gofast into tow or abandoning it, if he agreed to take it into tow then he adamantly refused to the retake the cargo, the risk of being stopped by coast guards was too great with a gofast in tow. They would have to make for Portsmouth in Dominica for repairs, where in any case the combination of a gofast and the motor cruiser would be immediately suspect.
The gofast drug runner was not about to abandon his boat, the captain of the motor cruiser called Baranquilla by a satellite phone equipped with a scrambler. Barton was offered a million dollars to transport the cargo to a pick up point off the Saba Bank, where he would be met by another gofast from Sint Maartin. At first he refused to take the risk, it was out of the question he explained, the owner’s Caribbean cruise was due to start in two days, if the Marie Galante was not in Gosier as foreseen a search would be launched. Barton was nevertheless sorely tempted by the money, which would resolve all of his financial problems.
The offer was raised to two million with clear sign of threat, the narco-traffickers were not interested in his commitments when such huge sums of money were involved, he had no choice but to accept, with the condition that the pickup point could be arranged off the Caymans after he had disembarked his passengers, a week from then. He had really very little choice; the crew of the motor cruiser was armed and could certainly take the ketch if necessary and dump him and his crew overboard to the sharks.
It was agreed, it would cause about a week’s delay, but the cargo was of much greater concern than the loss of a few days. They were not worried about Barton; there was little risk that he would double cross the narco-traffickers, if he valued his life. The cargo was swiftly transferred to the Marie Galante and stowed in the ballast compartment. A GPS emitter was put aboard the Marie Galante so that the narco-traffickers could follow her course over the following days. They would communicate with Barton to arrange a new pick up point for the drugs.
The Marie Galante arrived in Gosier around eleven the next morning, a busy time of the day in the port with the coming and going of pleasure boats and would not attract any undue attention. They had been out ostensibly trying their new navigation equipment on a test run around the French island Marie Galante and nearby Dominica.
During Barton’s absence Courtauld had organised the preparations for the cruise that afternoon supplies and fuel were loaded on board. Then the cook and cabin attendant boarded and immediately set to work in preparation for the arrival of the passengers. Finally a technician from the navigation equipment supplier came onboard making the last adjustments and checks on the new equipment, before the owner and his guests joined the yacht at six that evening ready for their richman’s jaunt across the Caribbean.
Barton was nervous, though he was not the least concerned about his two Guadeloupean hands who sailed the ketch with him. They could be trusted and were well paid for their work and silence. But almost three tons of cocaine on the boat was good for at least twenty years in prison, which at his age meant he would die behind bars.
The local customs and police were no real threat unless something unexpectedly went wrong. He had always gone to great pains to maintain good relations with the authorities avoiding the usual petty tricks of the local charter boats, smuggling in alcohol and cigarettes. He made sure that the families of the officials had their weekend cruises in the off-season and the free rides down to Martinique when the occasion arose. When in port he often invited them aboard for the evening pastis.
With three tons cocaine literally under his feet he seemed to smell the stuff and was almost certain it could be smelt for a couple of miles around. He had always carefully avoided direct involvement in narcotics up to that point, refuelling was a limited risk, but he knew the taste of easy money was like a drug, once tried the risk of being hooked was great.
As soon as he was at sea he would feel happier though that was not a guaranty and his troubles were far from over with seven days cruising the Caribbean. The boat could be boarded and searched in a spot check at any one of the ports where Castlemain chose to make a stopover.