cartel
In the vast criminal underworld, cartels reign supreme; get the full scope of global drug trafficking networks from notorious kingpins down to lowly street pushers.
Two
Jose Cupertino sped down Highway 133 in an old busted up 1985 Toyota pickup truck. He had been driving for days, weeks, hours. Time didn't really register to him anymore. His main last memory among his numerous other thoughts was of a woman handing him a black notebook. He could remember the look in her eyes as she handed it to him. It was an expression of fear, tired, lamentable fear. He was the last person anyone would suspect and that probably had been the reason of why he was chosen. He was a postal office worker in the little town of Medillin. It was a town that had transformed from a peaceful village to one of civil unrest. Killings and gunshots were now a part of everyday life. In the black book was a short plea to hide the pages secrets and stuck into the bookend was a passport, his photo imprinted in the middle of it, perfectly as though it had always been there. He had never been to the U.S. He found it somewhat ironic that now he was being forced there that night. He had barely known the woman. She had been a regular customer of his, an international customer, and later there had been a light friendship, but nothing more and now he was headed up north to meet relatives of hers that she had never seen and he had never known apart from the envelops that he would deliver to her doorstep every couple of weeks. It seemed fitting for the times, yet surreal to reality at that moment. It was under the cover of darkness that he had left Medillin with its deep green hills and humid breeze. There was a guard post just outside of the village and he was stopped, but no one paid much attention to the run of the mill postal worker. Soon the green hills were at his back and night sky were in the windshield before him. Two hours later he had made it through customs at the Metropolitan Airport. The passport had checked through, a modest business man he appeared to be in the photo and then he was taxing on the runway with another 150 passengers headed for Houston, Texas. As the wheels left the tarmac two words popped into his brain and he wondered why they would be those two words, but also partly understood and then the plane banked upward into the black space of the Columbian night sky and disappeared into the low hanging clouds that only a jungle could command and contain.
By Sound And The Messenger5 years ago in Criminal
The Third, But Not The Last
They came for him at midnight. He had shut himself inside a month ago, reading voraciously and only stopping once a day to eat and sleep. Earlier in the afternoon he had finally found the solution, and after checking his work to be sure, he had tattooed his left palm with the answer so many had sought before him. By the time he had finished, he was so exhausted he had collapsed into bed before he could test it.
By Andrew Rhodes5 years ago in Criminal
It Wasn't Worth It
“Package for you,” Ben’s mother wheezed. She was a wide woman, with hips twice the width of her shoulders and half the width of her waistline. She never averted her gaze from the television, with an ashtray to the right of her and an oxygen tank to her left.
By Belle C. Fairbanks5 years ago in Criminal
Unforeseen Circumstance
Red and blue lights come flashing up behind me. I glance down at the speedometer and notice I’m not speeding. I continue to pull over to the right hand shoulder anyhow expecting him to pass by but instead he pulls up behind me. I sit there dumbfounded, wondering why I’ve been pulled over. A tail light must be out or something and he’s just being a good civilian. Perhaps, just letting me know, giving me a warning.
By Laura Berggren5 years ago in Criminal
The Doorstep
A package arrived on my doorstep. I sit up in bed, wiping sleep from my eyes as I sneer at the offending light streaming through my curtains. My hair sticking up in matted snarls, the duvet had decided to tangle itself awkwardly around my legs making rolling out of bed ever so slightly difficult.
By Lucy Limbert5 years ago in Criminal
Elijio
Elijio Poor young guy who always wanted more than from where he came from. The taste of sweetness from the sugar canes that his family harvested in the border town of Pedras Negras just south of Texas came to become the only rich pleasure Elijio got from working long hours during the harvest season. Watching yet again as dusk started to set in and money being exchanged between his brother and the cartel gave him anxiety and nausea knowing he barely had enough to get by for his wife and daughter.
By Carlos Casarez5 years ago in Criminal
Just Another Dive Bar
She walked down the street, deep in thought about the events from the past week. She didn’t see her tail, even though he wasn’t being particularly careful. She was too self-absorbed in her own thoughts. She had been going by the name Jasmine of late, perhaps that was to hide from her past, perhaps it was to start afresh. She didn’t even know anymore.
By Daryl Benson5 years ago in Criminal
The Pen
The Pen ‘Is this a date?’ I thought to myself as I was driving up to the house, I felt finally uninhibited. All good. All perfectly normal social and internal conversations pre-date. Or non-date rather. Who really knows what this is? I thought to myself. It’ll be revealed. Yes, I’ve had a cruiser. I’m feeling liberal. Talking in my head. Yes. YaS! I am okay. I have stuff to say, I am entertaining. People like me. And other mantras to that effect.
By Charmaine Bonnefille5 years ago in Criminal
