Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense by Fynn Perry (popular romance novels TXT) 📗

he’s bribed the owners of the company and someone in the Port Authority in order to run his operation through the port unchecked,” Lazlo responded.

“What about the medical center where the organ harvesting is taking place? Did you find any connection to El Gordito?”

“It’s not listed anywhere and, given the coverup with the construction permit, I think it’s safe to say that any licenses and ownership documents are buried deep. But I have someone who may be able to get to what we need to know. You just don’t want to know how,” Lazlo warned.

“Understood,” David confirmed.

“Now, I have to tell you some bad news,” Lazlo sighed. “We found the body of a Mexican woman in the Hudson yesterday. I matched her face with a photo that Paul Hamilton took of one of the Latino women in El Gordito’s workforce in New Jersey.”

“The woman that he photographed so many times?” Jennifer asked.

“I think so, although there hasn’t been a positive identification, yet.”

Jennifer’s eyes welled up and the first of several tears fell down her cheek. “He must have talked to her, and now they’re both dead.”

“The murders will constitute a message showing that El Gordito demands absolute loyalty,” Lazlo explained. “It’s how the drug gangs operate. Of course, we probably won’t be able to identify her officially. She most likely came in illegally, and El Gordito kept hold of her passport. Getting her identified by the Mexican authorities would likely take months.”

“The bodies are stacking up, and you can’t do anything about arresting El Gordito?” Jennifer pleaded.

“We don’t have anything that pins the woman’s death on El Gordito, except Paul’s photo of her working at the warehouse. That scumbag’s lawyer will easily discredit the photo as evidence.”

“What about the logistics center in New Jersey—can’t you just raid it?”

“Not without a warrant. And I’m afraid the evidence I have isn’t sufficient to enable me to get one.”

They all fell silent.

“OK, let’s just take a step back and try to work out the size of El Gordito’s operation, because to move this forward, I need to know what I am dealing with,” Lazlo said, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. “If everything your anonymous source has said is true, then El Gordito is shipping the pills out hidden in household products like washing machines. Assuming each truck can carry twenty-five standard pallets and, on each pallet, you can fit twelve washing machines…that’s . . . three hundred washing machines per truck. Right?”

David and Jennifer shrugged in agreement.

“Let’s say, conservatively, there are a thousand pills packed into each washing machine. He’s not stupid, so he’s not going to pack drugs into every machine on the truck in case the truck gets stopped by the police and the outermost cargo is checked for some reason.”

While Lazlo paused, John gave Jennifer a look that indicated Lazlo’s thinking was on the ball.

“So, for argument’s sake, let’s assume only thirty-five percent of the machines have the pills and they are located in the middle pallets. Now, I’m guessing he’s selling wholesale at twenty bucks per pill and the current street value of similar drugs is forty. That means each washing machine contains twenty thousand dollars’ worth of pills at wholesale price.” He paused as he wrote some numbers down. “So, with thirty-five percent of the cargo containing drugs, each truck has around two and a half million dollars of pills on board! You can bet, at that value, he has each one followed! Now, let’s say it takes four hours to unload the clean cargo and then load the truck with the drug cargo. That’s five trucks per twenty-four hours with some wiggle room per bay. There are fifteen bays from what I could see. So, if my math––.”

“Seventy-five trucks are leaving the facility every twenty-four hours with $188M of pills in total,” Jennifer interjected. She had always been good at math.

Lazlo’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the speed and content of her answer. “Hell, at that rate, he’s probably got the Tri-State covered and is spreading out through the road network, one state at a time. That kind of money will soon make him practically untouchable thanks to his power over corrupt officials, lawyers, and judges,” Lazlo exclaimed, exasperated. “All we might be able to get him on at this point is the illegal workforce—but we’re going to need a lot more than that to bring the drug operations to a halt.”

“What if we weaken his organization bit by bit, so he starts making mistakes?” Jennifer suggested. “You know, in connection with some unrelated legal issues, like trumped-up code violations, without giving his lawyers grounds for harassment.”

Lazlo looked at her curiously. “Interesting...We could target his places of business, bury him in inspections, and try to get some of his men caught on misdemeanors. If he can’t make deliveries to his dealers and partners, he’s going to be under a lot of pressure,” Lazlo said, liking the idea. “I’ve got some buddies in immigration and in the health department who may be able to help.”

Lazlo’s phone buzzed. He had just received a text message from his mysterious informer. The text was brief and read:

Green Container Port LLC & SkyView Developments LLC controlled and financed by Miguel Vargas a.k.a El Gordito through a series of shell companies.

“Just as I thought, El Gordito controls the port storage warehouse and the development site next to the hospital.”

“So, what now?” David asked.

“I’ll do a sneak and peek at the storage facility near the port. It’s far easier to get into unnoticed than the medical facility, and it has less security. Obviously, this will have to be done off-book. You don’t need to know the details, but I’ll organize it.” As he stared at them for a moment, realizing that outside of El Gordito’s network, David and Jennifer Miller were the only people who knew of the existence of El Gordito’s secret drug and organ trafficking operations, he asked, “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

David and Jennifer