Read Online Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers by Roberto Saviano - Free Book Online Page A

brains behind the massive growing operation at El Búfalo ranch, outside Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state. But it was surely too big an operation for a man with his limitations. El Búfalo in fact functioned with the support of the Federal Security Directorate (DFS), headed byJosé Antonio Zorrilla, who reported to the secretary of the interior, Manuel Bartlett Díaz. It was a real marijuana factory farm, employing 10,000 campesinos from the area and even some from other states.
    With his wavy hair, Colgate smile and goatee beard, he fancied himself a lady-killer; perhaps that’s why he became known as El Príncipe, the prince. Expensive gifts and mariachi music had won him the favours of the eligible Sara Cosío, as we’ve seen. But this would not shield him from the approaching storm.
    “What do you mean, he can’t answer? Did you let him go?” demanded Don Neto irritably. He was very fond of this youngster, whom he’d first met in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, when he was just fifteen—so much so that when he had to choose between him and his nephew, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, he chose the former, and sent Amado up to Chihuahua to work with Pablo Acosta.
    “No, it’s just they beat him up and he’s dying,” answered El Príncipe.
    “Fuck you! You animal! You killed him tied up!” roared Don Neto, whose anger quickly turned into sobs.
    They were narco tears. Don Neto never cried, but that day he couldn’t contain his fury and despair. He knew that if Camarena was doomed, so was he. He swore like a trooper. In those days everyone knew that you frightened policemen or you bribed them, but you didn’t kill them. Especially not if they were gringos. Today the rules have changed in Mexico. Everyone’s fair game, even US Government employees.
    “It wasn’t me! Miguel Ángel’s people got there first,” was Caro Quintero’s excuse, referring to Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the most powerful of the three of them.
    Félix Gallardo, the Boss of Bosses, hadn’t been part of the plan to kidnap Camarena, but he’d learned about it because he managed the house in Mariano Otero Avenue. They also used this building, located opposite a children’s playground, as a brothel; the woman in charge was known as Paty, and she worked for Félix Gallardo. The place was usually busy, but it had been evacuated for Caro Quintero to bring Camarena.
    “Can’t you see the problems you’ve caused? With the government and internationally?” Fonseca was so angry that he was on the pointof raining blows on his junior; he took a quick turn in the patio of the Camp to calm down. He couldn’t believe this was happening—all the more because he had given Caro express instructions not to hurt Camarena.
    “It’s your shit, you clean it up!” snapped Fonseca, into Caro’s face. “This is not my responsibility!”
    “Don’t you believe it, we’re in this together,” retorted Caro.
    The argument got more and more heated, until both Don Neto and the Prince drew their guns. Caro Quintero was at home, surrounded by twenty bodyguards, while Don Neto had only his second-in-command, Samuel Ramírez, and one other person with him. It didn’t take much to see who would come off worse, so Don Neto left the house and sped off in his blue Mustang, wishing the earth would swallow him up. 1

The kidnapping of Camarena
    A few days before, on February 5, after a heavy binge to celebrate the birthday of Gabriel González—head of the murder squad for Jalisco federal police—Don Neto had met with the unpredictable Caro Quintero to discuss Enrique Camarena, who was giving both of them sleepless nights. They resolved to give the DEA agent a fright, a tactic that had worked with other officers who had then fled Jalisco state. Félix Gallardo wasn’t present at that meeting, and it seems they never informed him of the operation.
    Guadalajara was a narco paradise. There was room and protection for everyone: Fonseca, Caro Quintero, Félix Gallardo,