The Notebook of Carlos Moore

Trina Nunez was a ghost. We tracked down the guys that raped her, killed her, and stole her baby to put her to rest.

The meth was poisoned by an evil artifact that was also in the backpack. Indiana Jones stuff. Thing’s still out there. The Montes de Oca’s have it, and no one knows what they plan to use it for. If they plan to use it for anything. Jose Montes de Oca could just think it’s pretty and keep it on his mantelpiece for all I know.

Just in case anyone reads this thing after I’m dead, those two bits of information might help make things make a little more sense. Whether it makes sense because you believe it or whether it makes sense because it confirms that I’m crazy is a toss up.

A contact within the Attorney General’s office notified me that there’s going to be a major press conference in the morning announcing the results of Operation En Fuego, a multi-agency investigation that’s supposedly made some major arrests in the field of human trafficking. That would be a good thing, except i’ve had my ear to the ground for months watching for exactly this sort of thing, and haven’t heard a word. i know who the major drug smugglers and human traffickers in Southern Arizona area, and there hasn’t been a peep along the grapevine that anyone significant has been arrested. None of my contacts in the Border Patrol, the DEA, or Mexican Law Enforcement said a peep to me either. I understand playing something like this close to the vest, and I wouldn’t expect all or even most of my contacts to hear anything, but to hear nothing at all makes me suspicious. Given that this happens only days after the FBI contacts me, via the DEA, looking for intel on the OMM, and I have to assume there’s a connection.

Operation En Fuego could be a dog and pony show for the taxpayers, for political reasons admittedly beyond my understanding. Let mister and missus taxpayer feel like we’re doing something about those nasty filthy immigrants. Maybe bolster confidence that those evil drug murderers aren’t about to come over the border and start killing gringo tourists in their RVs. Given other things that I know, I’m wondering if it’s a smokescreen. The MDO have been gathering toxic materials and buying up hazmat suits. If I can put those pieces together, I’m sure the best and the brightest our government has to offer can connect the dots too. There’s no way they’s want the citizens to know what’s really going on or what potential danger their in, but they need to explain the increased activity by Federal agents somehow, so they can conduct their investigation and get their PR fix in one swoop.

All of this is pure speculation, of course. I have no idea what’s really going on.

Word on the street is that the MDO had something else in that package coming in across the mountains, and that it went missing when the mules came up dead. Someone intercepted, took the item and not the drugs. No one seems to know what exactly went missing, what it was for, or who else would want it. It’s entirely possible that it could be a weapon of some sort, but I don’t see the MDO having truck with terrorists. No money in it. Something they could use in their war with former distributors is more likely, although at this point no one seems to have any information on which distributor they’re beefing with or why. It’s chicken and egg, did the MDO start looking to create their own superlab because the distributors screwed them, or did the distributors screw them because they learned the MDO was starting their own drug lab?

It’s hard to track the mystery item, not knowing anything about it. There’s too much activity with the MDO war to sort out anything specifically related to their search for the item. I don’t even know why I want to follow it, other than the fact that this drug war is too big and I’ve got to find one thing to latch on and run with. And I think this item is important. I think it’s important enough that it’s going to be connected all the way up to Jose Montez de Oca, and that the target. Head of the MDO cartel.

There’s one lead, a dead body found outside of Bisbee a couple of days after the poisoned meth bust. A hippie named Chuck Pollens. He was apparently out in the desert with a couple of his pot-smoking buddies around the time the mules failed to arrive on schedule. Maybe it’s connected, maybe it isn’t. Maybe they saw something, though. Chuck’s sister reported him missing a couple of days prior to the action, but had no idea who he hung with when I interviewed her. He hung out with a drum circle and took classes with some meditation group, but none of them had any ideas who he may have been hanging with or why he was out in the desert in the first place. This whole thing feels like an investigational cult de sac, going in circles and getting no where.

Six drug arrests in two weeks that I’m responsible for, handed off to the DEA and the local LEOs for credit, but I’m still no closer to putting the screws to the MDO.

There is reasonable intelligence that the MDO are buying up hazmat suits and antivenom. It’s being kept under wraps so DHS don’t bust them on terrorist activities, although I don’t see the difference. If they’re working on setting up a superlab in Sonora, best case scenario DHS takes away the toys, makes some arrests, and stops the MDO from setting up the lab. Worst case scenario, the MDO get to keep the gear but know that DHS is watching, which will make them be more careful and put a crimp in their operations. I’ve considered dropping the dime to DHS, but it would mean burning a source. I’m not ready to do that yet, even if it’s a source I don’t entirely trust. Will continue to investigate and see how it plays out.

I know the antivenom can be used to treat meth lab workers who are exposed to toxic chemicals, but part of me wonders if the suits and the pharma aren’t part of a plan to explore the area where the drug mules were found. Hazmat suits would go a long way to mitigate exposure to snakes and scorpions. It’s a hunch, but not a strong enough hunch that I’ll risk going back there soon.

In an act of desperation a low-level member of the Montez de Ocas contacted the Gomez family for help. A drug mule carrying meth from a supplier in Mexico was a day overdue, and the contact on this end wanted to be on top of locating the shipment before the upper level of the MDO found out. Because the Gomezes knew the area well, the contact offered payment to conduct recon and locate the mule, dead, alive or injured. The Gomezes agreed, on the stipulation that they would not act as a guide for the mule, carry the drugs out, or offer any assistance other than phoning in the location of the mule.

The mule and his guide were located, dead, in an area infested with poisonous snakes and scorpions. A civilian helicopter was spotted in the area, presumably searching for the mule as well, but it is unknown whether the Gomez party was spotted. The Gomez party left, and called in the GPS coordinates to the MDO contact.

I also called in the GPS coordinates to the DEA. The sheriff’s department were the first responders, and unfortunately did not catch the MDO soldiers sent out with the drugs. Arrests were made, but no charges stuck. However, the drugs were seized and kept out of distribution, harming the MDO’s operations.

A few days later, a contact in the DEA called me and told me that the lab had tested the meth and that it was highly toxic. The toxicity was far beyond a poor quality batch, and implied that the meth was intentionally tainted. Rumors have been circulating that the MDO has been ramping up to build it’s own superlab in Sonora, so perhaps this was payback from a scorned supplier. The supplier may also have been delivering poor quality product for a while, leading to the MDO starting its own lab. Either way, their appears to be a war brewing between the MDO and their supplier.