Bright and early, Kareem, Dre and Marquis jumped into the back of a limo, and took another step closer to their dreams. An hour later, they boarded an American Airlines flight headed to Miami. After an hour layover, they boarded another flight to Medellin, Colombia, headed for the Medellin Jose Maria Cordova International Airport. After they cleared customs, they were greeted by a sedan driven by the workers of Salazar Ramirez. They drove for what seemed like hours, and watched the lively city civilization morph into jungle and then mountains.
Salazar’s castle-like home looked like it dated to the Renaissance era and was located up in the hills. They parked along the side of a Benz and a Hummer, and Salazar met them in a rotund driveway. The man stood at five-feet-four-inches, with thinned hair tied into a ponytail. He had a Mexican mustache and a five o’clock shadow.
Three meagerly dressed young women groped the American’s for weapons. Upon inspections, Salazar shook all of their hands. “Good to finally meet you,” he said to Kareem in a high-pitched voice as he nearly crushed Kareem’s hand with his large paw.
Dre said, “This is my team, Prodigy and Mar-Mar,” as Salazar escorted them to his dining room.
A long cherry wood table filled the room from end to end, along with paintings on the walls of iconic Colombians. The ceiling was painted to resemble a cloudy sky. Two bonny women pulled out their chairs. “Would you like a drink,” one of them asked.
“Naw, we straight.” Dre answered for everyone.
“Well, then, let’s get down to business.” Salazar sat back in his large chair and rested his hands on his potbelly. He snapped his fingers and had a woman place a cigar in his mouth. After she lit it, he asked, “You three smoke?”
None of them did, but they elected to puff on the luxuriant cigar filled with the purest weed.
Dre sat up, adjusted his shirt collar and recited what he wanted. “I am interested in purchasing large quantities of cocaine and heroine. I have access to cash and valid credit cards to satisfy the debt.”
Salazar moved in his seat, plucked his ashes into an ashtray held next to him by one of his woman, and asked, “What purpose would I need valid credit cards for?”
Kareem took over. “We thought it would be appropriate if we could give you payment in cash, and partial credit cards. We could pay 100-percent extra on the credit card end. I’m employed with the second largest bank in the states. Not only can I produce the cards, but I can monitor them, and I have the capability to launder funds.”
Salazar tented his hands, leaned his elbows on the table, and responded, “Let’s see here. If I agreed to this, how do you gentleman propose getting the product pass Homeland?”
“That’s an easy one to answer.” Marquis said. “Upon finalizing a deal with you, we are headed to purchase a warehouse.” He gestured toward Kareem, and continued. “This guy here plans to have clothing for his fashion line manufactured here in Colombia. We intend to get the clothes shipped to America, and have the drugs secured in the clothing linings to mask the scent from patrol dogs.”
“Interesting,” Salazar remarked. He sat silently for a moment, and then said, “I tell you guys what. You cannot buy less than ten kilos of heroin and thirty kilos of cocaine per month.” Salazar let that sink in. “For you, though, being a friend of Chino’s, I’ll charge you $5,000 per kilo for the cocaine. They are usually $2,000, but taking the credit card payment into account. The $3,000 is really of no financial burden, so the 150-percent mark-up is within your reach, friend. The heroin kilos are $15,000 each.”
Kareem had one concern: Could Dre push that much dope?
“Let’s do the math,” Marquis said. “If the coke is sold at $22,000, that’ll be $660,000 a month. Add that to $50,000 per key of dope, and that totals $1.6-million.”
“We can do that,” Kareem said, confident that Dre could make it happen with the help of Chino.
Salazar agreed, and stood and the three men followed him. Outside, he shook their hands and told them everything would be taken care of. He then told them to take one of his girls to chauffeur them around during their stay in Colombia.