The Land of Enchantment Cartel

By Michael S. Vigil

The Land of Enchantment Cartel takes the reader through the murky, dangerous world of transnational organized crime and terrorist networks, which are responsible for spreading violence and death throughout the world. The protagonist leads a small group of law enforcement professionals that chip away at criminal groups in the U.S., Peru, Mexico, and Paraguay until a final and violent show down takes place between the forces of good and evil.. Although, it is fictional, it is inspired by the author’s experiences in the DEA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532090547

Michael S. Vigil

Michael S. Vigil, born and raised in Española, New Mexico, earned his degree in Criminology at New Mexico State University where he graduated with Honors. He later joined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and became one of its most highly decorated agents. He served in thirteen foreign and domestic posts and rose through the ranks to the highest levels of the Senior Executive Service. He was the Special Agent in Charge of the Caribbean and San Diego Divisions. He further served as the Chief of International Operations in charge of all DEA offices worldwide. Mr. Vigil has received numerous awards during his elite career such as law enforcement’s most prestigious recognition: The National Association of Police Organization’s (NAPO) Top Cop award. This award is only given to ten law enforcement heroes each year from thousands of submissions nationwide. Many foreign governments have honored Mr. Vigil for his extraordinary and courageous efforts in the violent struggle against transnational organized crime. He is the only American to be made an Honorary General by the country of Afghanistan. China bestowed him with the “Key to the City of Shanghai.” The President of the Dominican Republic presented him with an Admiral’s sword at an International Drug Enforcement Conference. He is mentioned in over twenty-five books and appears on worldwide documentaries, and popular television programs such as Gangsters: America’s Most Evil, The Rise and Fall of El Chapo, Manhunt: Kill or Capture, and NETFLIX’S Drug Lords. He is a contributor to CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, Telemundo, Univision, Chinese Global Television, NPR, TRT, Al Jazeera, BBC, TV Azteca, El Financiero Bloomberg, FOX, NTN 24, Caracol Television, CNN Español, and dozens of internationally syndicated newspapers and radio stations. He is also a contributor to the highly regarded Cipher Brief. His highly acclaimed memoir, DEAL, was released in 2014. Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel, Narco Queen, Land of Enchantment Cartel, Afghan Warlord, and the Rise of the Sicario are his five fiction novels. Many of the scenarios, however, are derived from his extensive experience as an undercover agent. He is the only American to have a corrido (ballad) made in his honor by Alberto Angel AKA El Cuervo, a famous recording artist and composer in Mexico. Mr. Vigil was responsible for the largest and most successful operations in the DEA’s history. The most significant one involved thirty-six countries in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, he designed and implemented Operation Containment consisting of twenty-five countries, to include the China and the Russia. Prior to this initiative, only a few kilograms of heroin were seized in the region. During the first year of Operation Containment over twenty-four tons were seized in this same region. The U.S. Congress continues to fund the highly successful initiative. He also developed regional intelligence centers allowing foreign countries to exchange information on transnational organized crime. The centers are now operational globally. Mr. Vigil was one of the most intrepid and legendary undercover agents in the history of the DEA. He successfully infiltrated some of the most violent and dangerous cartels in the world.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Michael S. Vigil.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9055-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9207-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9054-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920562

iUniverse rev. date: 12/26/2019

Contents

Foreword

Statement Of Brigadier General Leonardo Gallego Castrillón

Statement Of General Rosso José Serrano Cadena

Dedication

Chapter 1 Mutilated Corpses

Chapter 2 The Investigation

Chapter 3 The Informant

Chapter 4 The Sendero Luminoso

Chapter 5 Following The Money

Chapter 6 Cartel War

Chapter 7 The Wire

Chapter 8 Cartel Training Camp

Chapter 9 Corruption In The Roundhouse

Chapter 10 The Kidnapping

Chapter 11 The Killing Of A President

Chapter 12 The Death Of A Cartel

About The Author

FOREWORD

When Mike Vigil meets you for lunch, he takes a seat that faces the door. He’s not paranoid; he’s lived long enough in the underworld to know what’s best in the case of any eventuality. The former Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, spent decades of his life infiltrating Latin American drug cartels, and has become one of the foremost U.S. experts on the subject. A lifelong law enforcement agent, he’ll never truly be able to leave the criminal world behind.

Mike started his career in New Mexico, but quickly became one of the DEA’s top global agents. He worked with counter-narcotics units in Colombia and helped establish strong relations with the U.S. Latin American ally.

During two tours in Mexico, Mike helped oversee the hunt and capture of Chapo Guzman in 1993, who would years later escape and become the world’s most wanted drug trafficker. Perhaps more important, Mike coordinated with Mexican police and Guatemalan troops, and established a network of informants throughout his territory that would prove essential for his successors in the DEA.

Mike’s experiences in South America should be a guide for every DEA agent who heads south of the border. The drug war may be unwinnable in many ways, (Mike is an open critic of the kingpin strategy) but in any long-term war, there are victories, and Mike has collected his share.

He has come a long way from his childhood in Española, New Mexico, where he was punished for speaking Spanish – his mother tongue – in school. (His Spanish would help make him indispensable to the DEA in Latin America especially) The son of a World War II hero-turned-auto salesman and a substitute teacher, Mike took that combination of work ethic and smarts into the field. DEA has long had a reputation for cowboys, and antics that attract the ire of the press and human rights activists, but Mike chose another route: he would study at New Mexico State University and then go into law enforcement.

When then-president Richard Nixon launched the drug war in the early 70s, Mike was ready for the frontlines.

I’m in it for the money, not for the drugs, Mike would say. This would become one of his lines, which he would use for every bust in which he had to play the role of a drug dealer in order to catch a real one, a line he would use when he had to refuse to consume the drugs that were so often offered by his unwitting targets. Whether working the streets of Denver, Albuquerque, Medellin, Hermosillo, and other parts of the world, the ruses were similar, and most often, the result was too.

For Mike, the drug war was a chess game, not a war as such, but a prolonged battle against the most nefarious of threats facing the United States and humans everywhere. Mike was nearly killed by a trafficker in Sonora, Mexico, after Mexican federal agents moved in during a drug buy, but he never let his nerves take over or curb his determination and drive. He was so relentless that one of the top drug traffickers in the world, a Honduran named Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, actually congratulated him when Mike arrested him in Colombia in 1986.

Mike never had much time for the head office, or the bureaucratic nightmare that is Washington, DC. But during his career, he created networks, subdivisions, and operational strategies that would be embraced and adopted back at HQ. Some law enforcement agents have called him a visionary; others have praised his smarts and decency. He is considered a legend.

Mike has looked the drug devil in the eye. No matter what your position is regarding the war on drugs, Mike has experience and knowledge that will enlighten even the sharpest cynic. Mike has stared down drug traffickers while conducting deals; he has shaken hands with politicians who knowingly or unknowingly allowed his enemies to thrive. He has cultivated sources and informants, checking in with them regularly even long after he retired from his DEA duties. He has helped create a trusted circle of police officers and prosecutors from the U.S. Southwest to Mexico’s southern border and beyond, with which he maintains contact and has remained friends.

There were times during his career that Mike was faced with choices: retire early, take a desk job, even take a payoff and flee to a tropical beach somewhere. But Mike grew up watching TV shows like The Untouchables, which led to him gravitating to law enforcement. He was never even tempted to opt out. If his career has proven anything, it’s that he is truly an untouchable in his own right.

Malcolm Beith—Author of The Last Narco.

STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL LEONARDO GALLEGO CASTRILLÓN

Antinarcotics Police Director of Colombia (Ret)

In contradiction of what some political figures, past and present, have stated in Colombia and other countries, it is not true that in the world, including the United States and Colombia, the war against illegal drugs and criminals dedicated to the despicable drug business has been lost or is being lost.

As long as we have federal agents like Mike Vigil in the deadly anti-drug battlefields of the world, each combat will be a guaranteed victory for those governments and law enforcement agencies. Mike Vigil is, and will remain forever, a true leader and international hero. He is brave, incorruptible, and at the same time possesses a tremendous spirit that is a symbol of invincibility and a warrior who is unconquerable. He is an example of what should be a guide for all drug warriors in the United States, Colombia, and the world.

STATEMENT OF GENERAL ROSSO JOSÉ SERRANO CADENA

Director General of the Colombian National Police (Ret)

The success achieved in capturing and extraditing the most notorious drug traffickers in the world was due to:

1) Relying, in that extremely violent confrontation, on an excellent group of men and women police officers accompanied by outstanding Colombian prosecutors, and supported by anti-drug and intelligence agents of the United States, with whom we worked hard and effectively until reaching our goals and objectives.

2) Having allied closely with great friends of the CIA and the DEA, such as our great brother and exceptional DEA agent, Mike Vigil, with whom we engaged in colossal battles in the brutal war on drugs that saved our country, Colombia and the United States as well, from the criminal activities of the biggest drug cartels in the world. With Mike Vigil, we continue a permanent and transparent relationship for the rest of our lives.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my parents, Sam and Alice, whose sacrifice, support, and love made me the person I am today.

It is also dedicated to my sisters, Anita and Mona.

To my niece Ursula who is my bright shining star.

And to Nicole who is in heaven with my parents.

To my stepdaughter Lisa Haynie and my grandchildren, Luke Edward and Sarah Claire, who make life a complete joy.

To my loving wife, Suzanne, who makes me see the beauty of the world.

To my friend, Alvan Romero, retired IRS Special Agent, who provided phenomenal support in the editing of Metal Coffins.

CHAPTER 1

Mutilated Corpses

Three black and white New Mexico State Police (NMSP) cars with alternating flashing lights lit up the dark night in the small village of Chimayo. Police officers were busy sealing off the area with yellow crime scene tape to make sure all evidence was preserved and not contaminated. The front door of an old, dilapidated trailer was open, and it actually looked like it had been ripped open with some sort of tool. It was hanging at an odd angle and looked like it might fall off at any moment. Loud police radio chatter could be heard in the ominous, chilly night air. Curious villagers who had been awakened from their sleep by the shrill of sirens huddled together trying to find out what had happened. They whispered crazy conspiracy theories to one another as though they were graced with some insight into the crime. They were used to violence. After all, the village was the per capita heroin capital of the United States, and the killings and overdose deaths were as common as a cold.

A short time later, NMSP Sergeant Chris Valdez, acting commander of district seven, arrived in his shiny black and white squad car. Homicide investigators had rolled in minutes before and were already surveying the gruesome homicide scene inside the trailer. Dark red blood covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. It resembled a grisly slaughterhouse rather than a residence. Photographs and fingerprints were being taken in each of the rooms. At the same time a thorough search was being conducted for any potential physical evidence.

Valdez asked one of his officers, What the hell do we have here! Is it another dead druggie who overdosed?

The officer, in a crisp black and silver uniform, replied, No sir! This is much more serious. We found a man and a woman who were brutally decapitated and all their limbs were dismembered. The body parts were scattered throughout the trailer. It’s almost like whoever did this wanted to leave a macabre puzzle for us to solve.

Valdez frowned, I have seen murder victims who have been shot, strangled, or stabbed, but never anything like this. How did we find out about the murders?

The officer pointed to a young attractive girl in her twenties who was dressed in denim shorts, a pink tank top, and yellow Nike tennis shoes. She’s the daughter of the dead couple. When she returned home from watching a movie at the Star Catcher Theater, she discovered her murdered parents. The girl’s name is Olga. She is hysterical and can’t say I blame her.

Valdez walked slowly over to the girl who had long brown flowing hair and offered his condolences. I’m so sorry about your parents. We will do everything possible to apprehend the bastards who did this. Do you know anyone that would do something so horrible, someone that had a grudge or a motive to kill them?

Olga blew her nose loudly with a white tissue as tears streamed down her face. She looked up, It’s no secret that my parents were drug dealers and they sold small amounts of different drugs in the community. I must have told them a million times to get out of the business because it was a loser’s game. They never listened and thought they would never get caught since they were just low level dealers.

Do you know who their source of supply or buyers were? Maybe your parents owed some money or someone wanted to steal their drugs.

Olga began sobbing again, I never met their source because my parents would go to Albuquerque on their drug runs and they were very careful about not letting anyone inside our home. They would collect the money by opening the screen door just slightly and hand off the drugs the same way. Judging by the appearance of the door someone forced their way in and massacred them. Motherfuckers!

Well, stay here until we finish the crime scene investigation since we may have further questions to ask you.

Valdez began walking towards his cruiser and stepped on a large rock, which sent him tumbling into the dry, dusty dirt. As he tried to lift himself up, he felt a round object with his left hand and believed it was a large coin. He dusted it off and saw it was a gold medallion with nineteen stars on the outer rim and a rustic outline of Mexico in the middle with a large, conspicuous Z over it. Attached was a thick gold rope chain whose clasp had broken causing it to fall.

Valdez clutched it in his hand and continued on to his police car brushing the dust off his uniform with his other hand. He grabbed the radio transmitter and pressed the button, 701 to dispatch. Before he could repeat it, Lorraine Gallegos, the very efficient dispatch supervisor came on the air, Go ahead 701.

Please contact the medical examiners office and have someone come to this murder scene to help us with our investigation.

Copy, do you have an address?

Valdez responded, Not really! Most of these roads and arroyos here, as you know, don’t have street signs. How anybody gets around the area is beyond me. Just tell them we are about seven miles from Española and they will see all the emergency lights from the main Chimayo road.

10-4, I will send someone your way. Good luck.

Valdez walked towards the house where investigators were working at a feverish pace. As he approached the entrance to the trailer a plainclothes detective saw him and waved. The dark haired, overweight detective, in a hoarse voice, said, Sergeant, we found what appears to be six ounces of black tar heroin, an ounce of methamphetamine, and three ounces of cocaine hidden in a large canister of flour in the kitchen pantry. We did a field test on all the drugs and all three were positive. It doesn’t appear like the motive was to steal drugs or money. It was strictly to snuff out the lives of the victims. The killings were obviously personal and meant to send a message to others.

An hour later, the medical examiner arrived. He was tall, bald, and walked with a limp. A car accident, years earlier, had shattered his right leg and he was fortunate not to be confined to a wheelchair. He entered the crowded trailer and worked around the other investigators. The floor was so slippery from the wet blood that he fell on his knees and it quickly soaked the bottom part of his pant legs. Son of bitch, he yelled. He soon began the grim task of collecting arms, legs, torsos, and heads, which he placed in in green garbage bags and then sealed them with zip locks. After placing them in the trunk of his car, he drove away slowly. He was tiring of dealing with murder victims and made a mental note to start looking for a new job in the next few days.

The following morning, Valdez decided that the investigation in Chimayo was much broader and could potentially have international implications so he called the DEA in Albuquerque. He was put through to the head of the office, Miguel Villa, who had recently been transferred from Mexico City. Villa was tall; broad shouldered and had proven himself as a capable field commander. In a few minutes, Valdez was able to fully describe all of the information and evidence they had collected from the night before. He also mentioned the gold medallion he had found, which immediately caught Villa’s attention.

Where did you find it? This is very interesting to say the least.

Valdez told him that he had found it in front of the trailer where the murders had been committed. I have never seen anything like it before, but was intrigued that it had an outline of Mexico on it.

I’m very familiar with the medallion, said Villa. Members of the powerful Zeta Cartel use it. The Zetas are, without question, the most brutal and violent organization currently operating in Mexico. Their calling card is wholesale dismemberments and decapitations of their enemies, including government officials and journalists. The Gulf Cartel in the early 2000’s began recruiting members of the elite Mexican Special Forces called Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales to provide security, facilitate drug shipments into the U.S., and conduct training to new recruits on weapons, surveillance, assassinations, counter-surveillance, and intelligence collection. After Osiel Cardenas, the head of the Gulf Cartel was arrested and extradited to the U.S. the Zetas broke away in 2010 and quickly became one of the most formidable transnational drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. The key question is what the fuck are they doing in New Mexico?

There was silence and then Valdez, in a quiet voice said, Whatever it is… only time will tell. Do you want to adopt the case federally and take custody of the drugs and evidence that were seized? We don’t have jurisdiction outside of the state, but are willing to continue working with you as much as possible.

Villa replied, Of course! I will be there tomorrow and maybe we can start pooling resources and get to the bottom of what brings the Zeta Cartel into the area. Regardless, it will not bode well for the state or its citizens.

After hanging up, Villa brought all of his supervisors together in his office and briefed them on his conversation with Valdez. He asked them to