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In Laredo, Texas, Captain Powers had picked up one of the smugglers that Pablo had believed might be one of the weaker links. He remembered that Jim had said to him that he sometimes wished he had a different job and he felt he might be their best bet at infiltrating the organization and learning their plans.-Jim Norton was squirming in his chair and sweating profusely.-His hair was streaked with gray and several places in his face full of whiskers were completely white.-His almost non-existent chin gave a weak look to his face.-His wide dark eyes seemed to dart from right to left and then back again with alarming speed.-His attitude was both insecure and belligerent and he was constantly balling his hands into fists and then relaxing them as though he didn’t know if he wanted to run or to fight.
“What the hell do you want with me?-I ain’t done nothin’ to be hassled about.”
“Jim, now we know that isn’t exactly true, don’t we?”-The soft spoken chief of police had a great track record for encouraging suspect cooperation.
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, man.”
“Who are you working for, Jim?”
“I ain’t got no job right now.”
“Jim, that’s not true either, is it?”
“Listen, you either charge me with somethin’ or let me the hell out of here.”
“If that’s the way you want it, the charge is murder, Jim.”
“Murder?-Murder?-Now, you just wait a minute!-I may have done some pretty bad things, but I ain’t never murdered nobody!”
“Right now, I have enough evidence to get an indictment against you.-My men are going through your apartment and when they’ve finished, I’m betting I’ll have even more evidence against you—maybe even the gun that was used to kill Ramon Mendez.-I saw you riding in the black Lincoln Town Car that has been identified as the vehicle that the shots were fired from when Mendez was murdered.”
“Oh, god!-I may have been ridin’ in it the other day, but I wasn’t ridin’ in it the day they killed Ramon.-I knew they was goin’ to do it but I didn’t have nothin’ to do with doin’ it.”
“Okay.-Just how did you know that he was to be killed?”
“The boss said if we didn’t shut him up, we could all end up in jail and he would have to make an example of him for runnin’ off and quittin’ like he done.”
“Running off and quitting what, Jim?”
“Oh, damn!-I’ve already said too much.-Maybe I’d better get me a lawyer.”
“Now, Jim, I can pretend I didn’t hear anything about a lawyer if you want me to so I can help you help yourself.-It’s up to you, Jim, but I can assure you that a lawyer isn’t going to be able to help you as much as I can if you cooperate with us.-As I said, it’s up to you, Jim.”
“I’m not sure anythin’ is gonna help me at this point.-If I talk to you, I’m a dead man.-If Laquidera finds out I’ve been arrested, I’m still a dead man.-I don’t know what the hell to do.”-By this time, Norton was shaking and almost at the point of tears.-“If my stupid sister hadn’t gone and married Garcia’s brother, I’d never have known anythin’ about the drug smugglin’ shit in the first place.”-In fact, he was so upset, he didn’t even realize that he was talking about the job and using names.-
“I can try to get you a deal, Jim, if you cooperate with us.-I can see that you didn’t actually intend to get into illegal activities and I can see that you are remorseful for what you’ve done.-If you turn states’ evidence and help us put these guys behind bars, I’ll do my best to see that you’re protected.-But if you want to take your chances with a lawyer, I can’t promise you any kind of help at all, Jim.-You’ve got to make up your mind.-Do you want to work with us in putting these people where they belong or do you want to trust a lawyer to keep you out of jail?-Of course, if you’re not in protective custody, there’s every probability that you’ll wind up like poor Mendez.-What’s it going to be, Jim?”
“I won’t stand a chance in hell of not bein’ bumped off in jail, either.-They can bribe anybody.-All they have to do is find out I’ve been in the police station and my life is over.”
“But, Jim, if you cooperate with us, nobody will have to know you’ve talked to us at all.”-Just then a tall, lean man with sandy brown hair mostly covered with a big sombrero entered the interrogation room.-His deep blue eyes looked quite serious even though his easy smile curved his lips upward.-He offered his hand to Norton and introduced himself.
“Howdy, Jim.-My name is Charles Harrington and I’m with the Drug Enforcement Agency.-The DEA has been trying to catch the drug ring that’s been working these parts for almost six years.-What we’d like to propose to you is that you go along with them as though nothing’s going on at all different.-You find out when the next shipment is coming across the border and let us know and when we close in on them, we’ll pretend like we’re arresting you along with them and then after it’s all over, you won’t be prosecuted for the smuggling operation.-Can you do that, Mr. Norton?”
“I don’t know.-I’ll be scared to death they’ll catch on to what I’m doin’ and they’ll kill me.-There’s not a doubt in the world, they’d shoot me down like a dog without a second’s hesitation.-I don’t know what to do.-I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.-Damn!”
“You just told Captain Powers that if they find out you’ve talked to us, they’ll kill you anyway.-If you choose not to cooperate, there’ll be no way to keep them from finding out.-So, when you come right down to it, what do you have to lose?”
“I guess I don’t actually have a choice at all.-I guess I’ll go along with you.-But are you just gonna let me walk outta here on my own?-What’s to keep me from double-crossing you?”
“Well, now, Jim,” Captain Powers explained, “you’ve already given us a couple of names of people we can pick up and we’d make damn sure they know who gave us the names.-So I don’t think you’d want to do that, would you?”
“Okay.-Okay.-I get the point!”
“You’ll also want to help us catch as many of them as possible.-Otherwise, whoever isn’t caught might figure out who ratted out the rest of them.-Then those still on the loose would have no reservations about going after you.”
“Alright, I’ll tell you everythin’ you want to know.-Everythin’ I know, that is.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent in getting all the details they possibly could from Jim Norton.-Then they compared Norton and Alvarez’s stories and descriptions.-Most everything came out exactly the same so they had good reason to believe they had completely reliable information.-Then, after dark, they took Norton in an unmarked pickup truck to a section of town that he frequented and let him out.-Norton promised them he would get in touch with them as soon as he knew about the next shipment.-When Garcia asked him where he’d been all day, he told them he had been in bed most of the day.-He managed to cough fairly convincingly and sniffle some.-He was badly enough scared that he didn’t need to do much faking to make his voice sound hoarse.
Two days later on Thursday, Norton called headquarters from a pay phone and told them the next shipment would be that same night and they would be taking route two, which meant they would be coming across the main bridge from Nueva Laredo, Mexico into the U.S.-He told them that the heroin would be delivered to the main office on Pueblo Street in Laredo, Texas and all the main men were expected to be there.-It would be one of the largest shipments they had ever delivered.-They should arrive at that address around seven in the evening.
DEA Harrington and Captain Powers set up their surveillance teams along the route laid out by both Pablo Alvarez back in Kentucky and by Jim Norton there in Texas.-They had decided to not even try to stop the shipment at the border but to try to seal off all the exits from the office on Pueblo Street and round up everybody there.
“I want every exit sealed air-tight, men.-As soon as the men with the shipment enter the building, I want two men on every door.-Oh, and that includes the exit to the roof.-It would be too easy to
escape that way into a helicopter that could be awaiting deployment at a moment’s notice.-In fact, check the roof and see to it that one isn’t already waiting for the shipment.-Keep as low a profile as possible but I want everybody arrested who’s connected to this drug operation.”
“You got it, Captain.-We’ll have it sewed up so tight a shadow couldn’t get through.”
“The caravan should be arriving in approximately fourteen minutes and there should be five vehicles in the convoy.-Make sure all the cars are accounted for before you move into place at the exits.”-Harrington’s radio squawked and he spoke into it briefly before turning back to his men.-“I’ve just been told that the ‘firemen have rescued the cat’ which means they have just passed the first checkpoint at the bridge.-Move at once into your assigned places and stay out of sight until the last moment.”
Two officers were just below street level in a manhole appearing to work on city utility infrastructure.-Two more ascended to the roof by way of some scaffolding that purported to belong to window washers.-Three others seemed to be operating a street cleaning machine and two more were suspended from a bucket truck with three others out of sight inside the truck.-A garbage truck came down the street appearing to be picking up trash.-None of these activities seemed to be the least bit out of place.-It would look to the casual observer as though everything was “business as usual.”
Just as the first of the vehicles that had been described in detail to Harrington by the surveillance teams came into sight, a uniformed man alighted from his florist delivery truck.-He took a huge bouquet of roses from the back of the truck and made his way to the front door of the building where the offices of the smugglers were located.
“Hey, it must be your birthday, Mrs. Blackaby.-Do you know how lucky you are to have a husband who cares enough to send you two dozen yellow roses?”-As the first of the drug runners were entering the building, he was in serious conversation with the receptionist about the flowers which the delivery man kept between him and the three men who headed for the elevator.
“But it isn’t my birthday and my husband never sends flowers.”
“Then it must be your anniversary.-Yeah, how many years have you been married, Mrs. Blackaby?”
“It isn’t my anniversary, either.-Maybe they’ve been misdirected.”-Two more men entered the elevator.
“Well, it says right here on the card, ‘Deliver to:-Mrs. Willene Blackaby at the Forrester Building at 219 Pueblo Street.’-That is you, is it not?-They are beautiful flowers, aren’t they?”
“Well, of course, they’re gorgeous and yellow roses are my favorite but I can’t imagine why anyone would be sending them to me.”-Two more men headed for the elevator and then a third came hurrying after them.-
“How about opening the card and seeing who sent them?-That couldn’t hurt could it?-I don’t have any idea where I would find someone else with your name.-Do you?”-While she reluctantly opened the card on the little plastic holder that was stuck in the vase with the flowers, the delivery man (a.k.a. Officer Bolton), watched as four more of the gang headed for the elevator.-That accounted for the fourth car in the cavalcade—one more to go.
“It just says, ‘From your secret admirer’ but I still don’t know who it could be from.”-The front door opened for the fifth time and three more men came through it and, like the other eleven, they were carrying heavy looking bags with them.-But suddenly there was a problem.-A big problem.-The first three men who had gone up came out of the elevator and headed for the exit.-Officer Bolton knew the other officers would not have had time to reach the exits to seal them off.- Thinking on his feet, he headed them off before they could reach the door.
“Hey, fellows, I’m trying to deliver these beautiful yellow roses and this lady has the right name but she doesn’t seem to think they were meant for her.-Would you look at this card and see if you can help me out?”-As Bolton had hoped, the men had stopped and passed the card from one to the other.
“Hey, Kenneth, what’s that gal’s name up on the ninth floor?-She had some flowers just like this the other day.-Maybe this is a repeat order and they got the names mixed up.”-The job was done and Juan was ready to relax.
“Yeah, but it was her anniversary.-It couldn’t be her anniversary again this soon.”
Perez spoke up with a half sneer on his face.-“Unless she’s like my ex-wife who had three guys drooling after her.-I found out later she was supposedly married to two of us at the same time.”- Half a dozen officers in riot gear entered the building and before any of them knew what was happening, the three suspects had been handcuffed and herded into a conference room.-
Willene Blackaby sat in open-mouthed astonishment as she watched the scene before her unfold.-“What in heaven’s name is going on?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Mrs. Blackaby, I’m an officer, too, and the flowers are yours.-I sent them.”
With all the exits covered securely now, almost two dozen agents headed for the elevator and the stairs.-They converged on the third floor and headed toward the back of the building and the drug operation's main office.-Six more men came up on the elevator and went toward the area where Pablo had indicated the arms cache was located and they secured that area.
Then the DEA and Police officers stormed the main office and arrested the other eleven smugglers, Jorge Laquidera, Jose Paschall, Faron Whitehead and Carl Forrester.-Of course, Jim Norton was arrested along with the others.-When they got back to headquarters, though, they separated the men into small groups and segregated Norton from the others.-That way nobody knew who was in which group and no one realized that Norton was no longer among the prisoners.-They questioned Norton again.
“Do you know of any others who weren’t on site at the time of the arrest?-Jim, you know it’s in your best interest to help us clean house completely, right?”
“There was Ramon Mendez; but I heard he was assassinated back in Kentucky.-And then there was Pablo Alvarez.-The last time I saw him was in Kentucky, too, but I don’t know what happened to him.-They may have killed him, too.”
“Okay, we’ll check those two out.-Thank you, Jim.”-Of course they knew what happened to them:-one of them was dead and the other in witness protection.-“You’ve done a fine job and it is much appreciated.-We’ll put you in the witness protection program where you’ll be safe from retribution from the gang.”
As soon as Tavalerio reported back to Sheriff Lampton that the capture was complete, the Kentucky authorities began extradition proceedings to bring Jorge back to the Commonwealth to stand trial for the murder of Ramon Mendez.-The warrant would, of course, include Faron Whitehead who drove the car from which Ramon had been murdered.-That made Whitehead an accessory before and after the fact.-Ed and Johnny were much relieved that they had all been apprehended and Laquidera and Whitehead would be brought back to Hartford to stand trial.- Sheriff Lampton was hoping to begin the trial by the end of May.-Both Penny and Chrissy would be about six months along by that time so they shouldn’t have any problem in testifying.-Penny had seen the big black Lincoln Town Car both as it came through and as it went back by their house.-She had also heard the shots.-Chrissy, of course, had seen the entire thing.-She would have been too far away to actually recognize the shooter but the car had been unique to anything they normally saw in that area.-
Sheriff Lampton assured them they had enough evidence to put Laquidera away for life or he could even receive the death penalty.-That was about six weeks away, though, and there was a lot to do between now and the trial.
Back in Webb County, Texas, the county sheriff’s phone rang.-He was sitting leaned back in his chair with his dusty boots plopped carelessly on the top of his desk.
“Hello, Sheriff Lester Finkley speaking.”- Recognizing the voice on the other end of the line, he immediately set up straight in his chair and planted both feet firmly on the floor.-“Yes, sir…………Yes, sir………..Of course, you pay me quite generously, sir………..But, sir, I only found out this m
orning about the entire operation………..No, sir.-It was a Laredo Police Department and DEA effort, sir.-I had no part—……….I don’t know why my department wasn’t notified, sir…………I understand the entire smuggling ring was arrested from Carl Forrester on down………….Yes, sir, them, too………….I suppose I should have been aware of the sting, but……………No, sir, you don’t have the wrong man on your payroll. …………..I’ll find out as soon as possible, sir…………Okay, okay, immediately, sir.”
In spite of the overworked air conditioner, Sheriff Lester Finkley was perspiring profusely.-He wiped the almost dripping dampness from his upper lip with his starched and creased uniform shirt.-The sparse strings of hair on his shiny scalp were wet with sweat and his jowls were visibly shaking as he levered his more than ample frame out of the chair and began mumbling to himself.
“I don’t know what he expected me to do.-I had no idea they were going after the stupid smuggling ring.-How was I supposed to know about it?-Am I expected to keep track of what goes on in the LPD and the DEA, the ATF and the Texas Rangers and every other damn law enforcement group in Texas?-It’s bad enough he expects me to protect the smuggling operation from being hassled by my own men.-Sure, he pays me pretty good, but it isn’t always easy, either.-Now he wants me to find out who tipped off the ones who made the bust.-I have no idea how he expects me to do that but I’m expected to do it anyway.”-He was still grumbling to himself when he slammed his office door as he was leaving.
Chief Deputy Colton Keenan had come in the back way and had had to hurry to the bathroom.-He was just coming through the bathroom door on his way up front and he stopped to get his holster back on and adjust all the paraphernalia—handcuffs, baton, mace, taser, etc.—that had to be re-attached.-As he was beginning to refasten everything, he heard the phone ring in the sheriff’s office.-He didn’t know if Sheriff Finkley was in or not, so he was trying to hurry so he could answer, if necessary.-But he heard the sheriff answer, so he relaxed.-Then he heard the sheriff’s deferential end of the conversation.-He hadn’t intended to eavesdrop, but he was there and he couldn’t help hearing.-He had no idea to whom his boss would be talking but there were only about three people he spoke to in that subservient voice: County Judge Hank Belliden, Senator Darrell Kirkland and Governor Dan Anderson.
He had just finished his adjustments to his equipment belt and holster when he heard the remarks the sheriff was making to himself as he prepared to leave.-True, the sheriff was mumbling to himself, but Deputy Keenan had heard enough to be quite concerned about the integrity of the sheriff, his office and whomever he had been talking to on the phone.-His statement about protecting the smuggling ring, reporting the snitches, and all the other stuff had him worried—a lot.-
Deputy Keenan took off his broad-brimmed hat and scratched his sandy fuzz-covered head. His light complexion caused his dark brown eyes to look almost black and the eyeglasses he wore gave him an even more serious look.-His frown caused deep furrows above the almost invisible brown of his brows.-His eyes showed plainly how troubled he was and he wondered what in the hell he should do.-Who could he talk to?-If, indeed, the sheriff was crooked, who could Keenan trust?-Who else might be on the ‘payroll’ the sheriff had admitted to being on?-He’d have to do some thinking about this.-Of course, the big man that the sheriff answered to didn’t have to be one of the three politicians; it could be someone entirely different.-His money, though, would be on one of them.-But which one?-His daddy had always said, “The only politician you can trust is a dead one; and don’t bet your life on the dead one being honest.”
That evening in his apartment, he spent a large chunk of time trying to reason through everything.-The sheriff didn't really have a "chief deputy" as such.-Maybe he could understand now why Finkley seemed to be sort of a loner.-If he had gotten very chummy with anyone, they might have figured out he was on the take.-A second in command would have possibly been privy to too much information that the sheriff couldn't afford to have revealed.-Damn, he hated a crooked cop!-They gave the decent officers a bad name and ruined the credibility of the entire force.-That, in turn, had an adverse impact on their effectiveness.
But how could he be sure that there weren't others in cahoots with the sheriff?-Other officers who were working with him?-He couldn't just forget it, could he?-He felt he had to do something, but what?-For sure, he would keep his eyes and ears open and see if he could figure anything out.-He sure did wish he had someone he knew was trustworthy that he could talk to but, right now, there was no one, no one at all.