Velocity (Karen Vail #3)(91)

“Isn’t this whole goddamn thing simple supply and demand?” Brix asked. “I mean, we’re a big part of the problem. If we’d stop buying this shit, the cartels would be out of business.”

“Good luck with that one,” Mann said, almost a grumble.

Turino nodded his head animatedly. “Exactly right, Redd. The U.S. is one of the largest consumers of illicit drugs in the world. And 90 percent of the coke entering the U.S. from Colombia comes in through Mexico. That’s why the Mexican cartels there have become so much of a problem for us.”

He stepped up to the U.S. map he’d pulled. “Take a closer look at the border regions we talked about a minute ago.” Tipped his head back, found an area, and pointed a finger. “A lot of it is reservation land. And that’s been a big fucking problem for us. Because a criminal band of Native Americans facilitate the drug trade.”

“Native Americans? How’s that work?” Mann asked.

“Pretty damn well, actually. You got mostly barbed wire along the reservation’s border with Mexico. Not much of a deterrent—especially if you’ve got willing partners on the other side of the wire. And the smugglers are most definitely willing partners.”

“Unbelievable,” Gordon said.

“Gets better.” Turino pressed a finger against the map. “See this here? The Tohono O’odham Nation territory has been a longtime problem for us. It’s huge,” he said as his hand traced the almost circular shape of the land, which covered a substantial portion of the Mexico/Arizona border. “Roughly the size of the state of Connecticut, 2.8 million acres.”

“The size of Connecticut?” Vail asked over the speaker. “This is reservation land within the state of Arizona?”

“Right. And they’ve got only about eighty cops to cover nearly 3 million acres. You can see the problem. Mules can literally drive up to the border in trucks and hand over kilos of drugs across the barbed wire fence. Cartel-backed criminal bands of Native Americans take the handoff and drive it to their buildings for storage before it’s transported into Tucson or Phoenix in a stolen van. The locals like it because they get a thousand bucks or more per load. It’s good money and a lot of ’em are unemployed.”

Dixon blew air out her lips. “What are you guys doing about it?”

“We’ve beefed up our presence. The smugglers use radios with rolling codes and watch Border Patrol with night vision equipment so they can see when it’s clear for them to move their loads. Border Patrol’s countered with trucks outfitted with infrared cameras that can detect heat signatures. Bottom line, the land’s in danger of turning into a militarized zone. But even with that, last year alone was a record year. Over 160 tons of marijuana were seized—and that’s only what we caught.”

“Don’t be fooled by marijuana,” DeSantos said. “The people trying to legalize it? Be careful what you wish for. Pot may seem harmless to some, but it’s really the driving force behind the whole illicit drug trade. The cartels use the profit from pot to buy coke in Colombia as well as the ingredients for making meth and heroin.”

DeSantos’s image enlarged as he leaned closer to the webcam. “Take it a step closer to home. Almost half the foreign terrorist organizations—which are involved in investigations with a validated terrorist link—have ties to the drug trade and are responsible for our country’s illicit drug supply. Groups like the FARC, the AUC, and the ELN in Colombia. And the proceeds from drug trafficking end up with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. So in a perverse way, like Detective Brix said, the American drug user is the single largest funder of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”

“Drugs aren’t the only problem with these cartels,” Turino said. “People. Lots of human smuggling, too.”

There was a collective sigh from the task force. They leaned back in their seats, sensing the enormity of the situation. Everyone in the room had been briefed at one point or other about some aspect of the war on drugs. But Turino’s presentation, and the fact that it was hitting close to home, made it suddenly more real—and overwhelming in scope.

“Biggest problem is that once they get these drugs into the United States, no matter how or where, they’re transported on our freeways—Interstates 5, 8, 10, 15, 19, 805—they link the southwest smuggling routes to drug markets throughout the United States.”

“I’m beginning to reassess my view of whether or not we can win the war on drugs,” Mann said.

“Can’t think of it that way,” Turino said. “Every operation is a battle. You grab up a bad guy and take a kilo of coke off him, that’s one less kilo of coke going into your child’s nose. Or vein. That’s how we do it. One battle at a time. I’ve devoted my life to it.”

“You mentioned Operation Velocity,” Dixon said. “What is it, who’s running it?”

“It’s a DEA op. We’ve got plans in place for a nationwide sweep that’ll involve the Mexican military, FBI, ATF, and ICE. If our recent estimates are anywhere near reality, we think we should be able to take a shitload of drugs out of circulation. A couple thousand pounds of meth, two to three thousand kilos of coke, dozens of pounds of heroin, tens of thousands of pounds of high-potency marijuana. And that doesn’t even include the weapons we’ll get off the street. If all goes as planned, we figure we’ll be able to grab up between two and three thousand traffickers, cartel members, and money launderers.”