LAWSON SAT AT THE CONFERENCE TABLE PACKED WITH DEA AGENTS. HE was starting to sweat in his suit and tie despite the air-conditioning, which was on full blast in late May. He didn’t know any of the faces other than Jeff Hathaway, who sat across from him, and Rene Dieguez, a veteran agent who ran the DEA’s Nuevo Laredo office. Lawson counted nine DEA agents in total in the room to the FBI’s three.
The DEA’s Houston headquarters were in the River Oaks district, one of the most affluent areas in the city. The offices were massive and teeming with agents, and it seemed the whole meeting had been calculated to show the FBI agents from their small, backwater agency on the border that they were completely out of their league. Not surprisingly, the meeting didn’t get much better from there. The group supervisor from the DEA’s Houston office did most of the talking, and Lawson, Hodge, and Villarreal listened.
He explained that the DEA had been surveilling an insider who was close to Miguel Treviño and his brother Omar. His name was Ramiro Villarreal, he said. Lawson kept his expression flat at the mention of Villarreal’s name. He nodded and listened, playing the role of the ignorant rookie, as the DEA supervisor explained who Villarreal was and how he had no idea the DEA was monitoring him. The FBI’s investigation would only risk tipping him off.
They didn’t care about José Treviño, the money laundering, or the horses. The horses would be an expensive logistical headache for any federal agency to undertake. Besides, they had drug indictments already in the United States with Miguel’s name on them. And they were going to use Villarreal to get to him in Mexico, where he was still out of their reach. What they wanted was Miguel’s current location so they could send in a vetted team to arrest the drug kingpin, who so far had eluded them. With his money Miguel had been able to ensure that his contacts in the Mexican military and police would always tip him off hours before a raid.
But Lawson doubted they were really working the Villarreal angle as hard as they claimed. If they were, then they’d know that Villarreal was no longer part of Miguel’s inner circle and had been replaced by Carlos Nayen. Lawson understood that arresting Miguel and Omar Treviño would be a career-making coup for any agent, and that taking down the two kingpins was at the top of their list. But the DEA had just told the FBI to get lost, so if they didn’t know about Nayen he wasn’t going to do their job for them.
Finally, their boss, David Villarreal, interrupted the DEA’s monologue. Surely there was some kind of middle ground, he argued. His agents could work with the Laredo DEA agents and keep them updated on the progress of the money laundering case, while the DEA in Houston kept working its lead on Ramiro Villarreal. Either way the DEA would have a stake in it.
Lawson and Hodge quickly assured the Houston DEA agents that they wouldn’t go anywhere near Ramiro Villarreal. And they’d keep Hathaway and Rene Dieguez advised on their every move. Hathaway already knew that Lawson had Tyler Graham as a source, so he was quick to agree. The Laredo DEA would work with the FBI, he assured the Houston agents.
The meeting ended better than he’d imagined. He could keep working with Tyler Graham while the DEA went after Ramiro Villarreal. He knew the FBI’s goal was to send a message to Miguel that he couldn’t set up businesses in the United States with his blood money. Thousands of people were dying in Mexico just so the Zetas could control a bigger share of the international drug trade, and Americans were lining up to buy whatever Miguel had to sell. And with those profits he was building his horse-racing dynasty in America. His ego let him believe he could pull it off without the FBI or anyone else noticing. As they flew back to Laredo, all Lawson could think about was how he could use José to get to Miguel. Not only would they dismantle Tremor Enterprises, but they’d also send in their own vetted team to arrest Miguel and Omar in Mexico. That was his goal. And Tyler Graham would help him get there.