“I’ll ask again.” Rojas looked at Kyle. “Hey, wake up.” He slapped Kyle. “We’re talking about the Oficina de Envigado cartel. Who is in charge of their operations on the island?”
“Gaviria,” Kyle sang. “Don’t you just love saying that name?” His glazed eyes and thin smile spoke volumes to the euphoria he felt inside.
Rojas whispered, “Carlos Ochoa Gaviria.” There was shock in his tone. “I knew his father.” For this part, Rojas did not need Gustavo Moreno to hand him an intelligence report. “A former member of Muerte a Secuestradores.” Rojas began to pace the room. “Gaviria’s father ran the MAS, a paramilitary arm of the original Medellín Cartel. It was huge. It had the backing of the Colombian military, the Colombian legislature, small industrialists, wealthy cattle ranchers, it ran the gamut. And just to keep trade normalized, even Texas Petroleum, a US-based corporation with a huge investment in the region, was a contributor. Carlos Gaviria would have gone with his father and been raised in that environment. Carlos Gaviria would have gone with his father and been raised in that environment. Enforcement, murders, kidnapping, torture. He would have seen it all.”
Moreno said, “Patron? Perhaps Gaviria has not yet worked his way up within the new cartel.”
“No,” Rojas said as the thoughts percolated. “No, this is something else. Gaviria would be high up in their organization. Very high up. This means that Oficina de Envigado, the very successors to the Medellín Cartel, are making a much bigger play of Antigua than we thought. This raises the stakes.”
“Would you like me to gather more intelligence on Senior Gaviria, Patron?”
“Of course, you fool!” Rojas screamed. “I want to know his whereabouts. I want to know what he had for breakfast this morning. I want to know everything. The timing could not be worse. We’re going to have to do something.”
“Yes, Patron,” Moreno said.
“No, Agent MacKerron, changing a drug route is not the issue. What we’re involved with is much, much bigger than drugs.” He turned to Moreno before leaving. “Keep him alive. No one touches him. We may need him later.”